Tips & Tutorials
One week the river is low and clear, and the next there's a leaf in every seam and something on the hook after every other drift. The trout haven't stopped eating; the trick is getting a clean fly in front of them. How to read what the leaves are telling you, find a lane you can fish, strip the rig down, tell a leaf from a take, and know when it's time to move.
By October most of the fly box has gone small. Then a big orange caddis comes fluttering up the bank. How the October Caddis hatch works, where and when to look for it on western rivers, why to start with a pupa near the bank, and three ways to fish the dry — dead-drifted, skated and waked.
The gray, drizzly day that makes the couch look good is often the best trout fishing of the week. What cloud cover, cold fronts, wind and rain actually change on the water, what the barometer is really telling you, and how we'd adjust for each — including the bright, cold day after a front.
Cooler mornings are a good excuse to make room in the fly box. What to set aside as terrestrial season winds down, what stays in year round, the small mayflies, midges and streamers worth adding, and how to give the summer flies some care before they go on the shelf.
A hopper-dropper covers two levels. On a grassy bank it costs you the one that matters. How to fish a single hopper rig — placement, angles, rigging, and the eight flies that do it.
