duaneredford.com   "Fear No Water"

Hidy Ho Good Neighbors!

So glad May is finally nearing June. I traveled a bunch giving presentations in Colorado and Arizona. I’m not much for hotels and rental cars, but I do enjoy speaking to various groups. I spent 2 days in Tucson, 3 in the Phoenix area, and 3 in east-central Arizona’s White Mountains.  Big groups of “fishy” folks.

The Arizona folks spend most of their fly fishing days raking the still waters. They float-tube or bank/wade fish the mountain lakes for trout and pike, and do the same on lower elevation lakes for large and small mouth bass. Fly fishers in Phoenix talked about catching carp in the urban irrigation ditches or chasing them in the warm shallows on lakes.

My presentations, thankfully, were well received, but it was interesting watching my focus spin from moving waters to still waters. Although my latest book has a section on fly fishing lakes, I don’t spend a bunch of time talking about it in Colorado. I only fish lakes once or twice a year anymore and going back to my Arizona roots, made me realize how often I used to fly fish lakes. Interestingly enough, it’s still forms the basis of one of my main theories of fishing. It’s all about depth, speed, profile, and color. I can’t say it enough; those basic tenets of fishing are of utmost importance.

Notice how I say basic tenets of fishing instead of fly fishing? After much thought one night after a presentation in Tucson, it hit me that all fishing requires attention to depth, speed, profile, and color. Even a kid drowning a worm under a bobber must pay attention to those basic tenets! Streamers, dries, dry-droppers, nymphing, lures, salt, bait…..It’s all about finding feeding fish levels, speeds of the lure, flies or bait that feeding fish are eating, and the proper profile and color of the food fish are feeding on.

Makes me think of the old cartoon of the fish in the restaurant complaining to the waiter that there is a fly in his soup. The first time I saw that I wondered where the fly was depth-wise in the bowl. At the bottom? Suspended somewhere in the middle? On top?   It makes a difference where that fly is, because then I’d know at what level in the “soup” that fish is feeding.

That may sound silly, but my main concern when I approach the water (river or lake) is where in the “soup” are those fish feeding? Get those bugs at that level first, and then dial in your speed (weight), profile, and color. Find the level of the feeding fish! Often it’s observable. When it’s not, then you have to systematically dig thru the soup til you find the level. I usually start at the bottom of the soup and work my way up til I find the feeding zone.  If I’m not hooking as many fish as I think I should be, more than likely my depth is off, provided I have the proper speed.

I am convinced you can throw the wrong flies at the correct depth and speed and hook fish. The converse is not true, the perfect bugs at wrong depths and speeds does nothing but allow you to work on your backcast. The next time you hit the river or lake of your liking, take a moment to really discern at what level the fish are feeding. You’ll have already won half the battle even before you start fishing, and oh yeah, pass the crackers, please.

Fear No Water!

Bob with another fish using more conventional fly gear.

Father’s Day is coming, get a copy for your favorite Dad!

Client using a nymph rig in still water to produce a nice bow.

Bob Long using Tenkara to find the proper depth of feeding fish. Fun to guide a guy using this method.