As the final installment of MidCurrent's essential fly fishing tips, we've collected 42 Fly Fishing Strategy Tips. They cover fly selection, approach, presentation, and landing and releasing fish, and we hope you'll find an example or two of clear thinking about common challenges.
To get you started:
Size Matters When choosing trout flies, the relative importance of fly characteristics in your selection, in order, should be: size, shape, color, and action (for stripped flies). In saltwater, action is often more important than exact size and shape.
Dropper Flies or Tandem Rigs Dropper flies are a trout angler's secret weapon. A simple dropper rig can be made by tying a small nymph onto 14-18 inches of tippet material tied to the bend of a dry fly. If the trout takes the nymph, the dry fly serves as your indicator. Nymphs can also be tied in tandem, enabling you to find out which nymph is working better.
(If you haven't read our other tips, you can find them here: Fly Fishing Gear Tips and Fly Casting Tips.)
In your excellent 42 strategies -
Indicators: Striking too late.
This is one, and the only 'tip' in this excellent series that I disagree with, and I think it costs more fish than it hooks. If your nymph is in the right place, that means on the bottom, it is going to bobble. If you strike at every movement you will never get a drift.
I do not believe there is a fisherman alive that can obtain a hook-up unless the fish has got the fly in its mouth and the indicator fully stalls or ducks under. There is just too much slack inherent in using indicators.
Without wanting to spam there is a whole article on this subject on my site: www.bishfish.co.nz/webbooks/smttrout/indicator.htm