Fishing Pressure -> Smart Fish
As I have mentioned in other posts, most of my trout fishing is split between Utah and Idaho. Each season I also fish several days in Montana and Wyoming, including Yellowstone. As fly fishing’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, a side effect is pressured waters, particularly in places where the public access is easy and even more so, near population centers. A great example of this is the Provo River in Utah, which is easily accessed by a large population of fishermen – under a 45 min drive from Salt Lake City, 20 minutes from Park City and the Provo area. On weekends, even in the dead of winter, the Provo River has become a “Combat Fishing” zone. Fishermen rush to get to their spots and if you are on their hole, they will crowd you. This often puts guides in a really precarious position. They are trying to make a living and need to secure a productive hole for their clients, but often they arrive too late.
This predicament is not unique to the Provo River, nor is it unique to Utah. Increasingly, the fly fishing crowds are following the hatches on the west’s most popular rivers. The “Mother’s Day caddis hatch” on Colorado’s Arkansas, the famous Cicada “hatch” on the Flaming Gorge of Utah’s Green River, the Drake hatch on Idaho’s Silver Creek, or the salmon fly hatch on Montana’s Madison River are a few other examples.
Tomorrow, a Monday, a fishing friend of mine and I are headed to the Provo River. Of course we chose Monday in hopes that there would be fewer people than the weekend. This is an excellent time of year for dry fly fishing with midges hatching almost every day. Normally the hatch will come off sometime around noon, but the timing depends upon how quickly the water temp rises from the cold night before. Even though we are headed out on a Monday, and the hatch is sometime around noon, the discussion we had today was how early would we need to arrive in order to secure our fist pick of a good spot? Is 10am too late? On a Monday?
There are many other considerations besides time of day. You see, when fishing locations become pressured, fished every day of the year, by multiple fishermen, the fish become well educated. If you are dry fly fishing a hatch the details really matter when the fish are pressured. The fish care about size, shape and color of the fly, which should be a given. During a hatch, their “pattern matching skills” are finely tuned and they will refuse flies that don’t match what they are seeing. Sometimes, what looks like a dry fly eat on the surface is actually a sub-surface eat. With experience, you will be able to recognize the difference. But with al the other variables, sometimes it is hard to figure out exactly why you are getting refusals.
Tiny flies, like midges or fall baetis are difficult to fish. Even if you can fit 5X through the eye of the hook, the fly’s movement is seriously impacted by the stiffness of the tippet. Even 6X can put drag on a size 24 midge. Of course when the winter water is gin clear, the heavier tippet is visible to fish as well. My rule of thumb for dry fly fishing in the winter is fish the finest tippet that you can get away with and still land the fish. The river’s current, the size of the fish and weight of the rod are all factors that impact the tippet decision. My “go to” rod for dry flies is my Scott G2 883/4, a three weight rod. There are so many reasons why a lighter rod makes sense. The fly line is thinner and makes less splash and has a thinner profile on the water. The tip is softer and will absorb shocks, including the take snd the set. This protects fine tippet from breakage. If the fish are big, or are in fast current the equation changes somewhat and 6X or 7X may not be viable for landing fish.
Presentation is another consideration when fishing to educated trout. Educated trout are sensitive to drag on the fly as mentioned earlier. They are also spooked by fly line. When fishing with small flies, the line and even the but section of the leader can spook the fish. If my terminal tippet is 2′ of 6.5X for instance, I will connect it to 18” of 5.5X and 18″‘ of 4.5X, before connecting to my leader. So if I’m using a 9′ tapered leader, that translates into 14′ overall. It can be a huge challenge getting a 14″ leader to fully “lay out”. Casting a size 24 dry fly with very little mass makes it even more challenging. Add in some headwind, or even crosswind and it is next to impossible. Sometimes the fly just stops short and the last 3’ just piles up. Making a few casts that are intentionally short of your target is always a good idea, prior to making sure you can get that tippet to straighten out and not land in a pile.
Drag is another aspect to having a good presentation. If you have faster current between you and the current where the fish lies, you have to mend, or position yourself directly below the fish and take the varying current speed out of the equation. When water depth or other factors prevent this, you have to mend. Pressured fish are extremely sensitive to drag. The fly needs to move at the same speed of the current. Unlike mending a nymph rig, mending a dry fly is more difficult. WIth a nymph rig, you only need to mend the line. With a dry fly, you also have to mend most of the leader. If you are an excellent caster, you may be good at a mid-air upstream mend. I am not consistently good at this. My work-around is to cast about 2′ beyond the fish, knowing that I will move the fly about 2′ toward me when I complete the mend. Not pretty, but it does work. Note, mending causes the line to splash upon re-entry, so if you normally cast 3′ upstream of the fish, you may want to cast 5 or 6′ above the fish and get that mend in so you still have a 3′ lead once the mend has settled.
All of these details make dry fly fishing more technical than other forms. Add to that the need for precision casting. During a hatch, feeding fish won’t move much to take a fly, sometimes only a couple of inches. Whereas, a fish might move several feet to eat a big meal like a hopper, or even chase a streamer halfway across the river. One day I was fishing a pseudocloeon hatch while wading the Flaming Gorge of the Green River. I had secured the right fly at the Trout Creek Flies earlier, a size 24 yellowish green parachute ( I later learned that I did not buy enough 😩). The crazy hydraulics found in big rivers will often congregate flies along the seam of a big eddy. The fish formed a “Conga Line” right along the seam, with a steady flow of Pseudos headed slowly downstream. The cast was over the eddy, so the belly of my line was being dragged upstream. It wasn’t a problem though because these fish had their feedbags on and their open mouths were hoovering up the plentiful pseudos. So the adjustment I made was to cast only about 6″ ahead of the lead fish in the Conga Line. The trick was, they were not about to move more than an inch in either direction, side to side. The cast had to be precise! Once I got the distance dialed-in, I was able to get the cast right on target. With a size 24 fly, I knew it would be best to use 6X tippet and that is a huge problem on the Green – where most of the fish hover right around the slot at 16-19″. And, this was before I had my 3wt or 4wt Scott G2s so I was fishing my 4wt Scott STS. The first two fish broke off immediately on the take. I only bought 4 flies at the shop and I had been getting refusals on everything else in my box. So, down to 2, on the 3rd eat, I performed a very gentle set and accordingly, I had my drag almost off as well. The third fish came almost to hand, but I had a break off with a quick change in direction when he saw me up close. With my fourth and final fly, I managed to land the the next few fish and then the fly lost its hackle in the brown’s mouth and I was done.
The primary point of this article is that pressured fish are educated fish. Their pattern recognition ability just gets better and better with all the feathers and fur they get to look at, all while comparing the fake to the natural. Sure fly selection is more critical than ever – size, shape and color. This part is true for nymphs and streamers as well. However, once the correct fly selection has been determined, presentation including a drag free drift and an invisible tippet are a must; along with your near perfect cast. To me that extra challenge makes landing one of these fish all the more special.
Part 2 – What I learned Monday after we fished the Provo
Okay, today was Monday February 28th and we my fishing buddy and I fished the Provo today. The weather was absolutely incredible! We arrived at 9:30 and and found a good space. 9:30am and two trucks already parked at our put-in. We rigged quickly but the other anglers made it out ahead of us. Gosh, it was feeling like “combat fishing” but we realized that we had been scooped and took our time and rigged two rods. I rigged my 3wt Scott G2. I had built my leader last night just to save time on the water. I had about 7′ of 4X tapered leader going to a tippet ring, Past the ring, the tippet was all in a tangle. Cutting the mess off at the ring was the only option. Yes, I use tippet rings (you can give me grief in the comment section below). Tippet rings do one thing. They put a solid connection between the leader and the tippet. You change the tippet without shortening the leader. Anyway, I use them on all of my rigs: streamers, soft hackles, nymphs and yes, dry fly rigs too. Here is what I rigged today, the 7″ of tapered leader to the ring, then I ran 3′ of 4X to 1.5′ of 5.5X to 1.5” of 6.5X. So in case you are counting, we are at 14′. Also note that the ring is 6′ away from the fly. Going back to what I said in part 1, a long leader is an absolute necessity. My tippet caddy is full and the smallest I regularly carry is 6.5X. I knew that today, they may not be enough, so I pulled the TroutHunters 8X fluorocarbon and stuck it in my pocket.
When we reached the water, the first thing we realized was that our first choice hole was occupied. As we headed upstream to our second choice, we were delighted to find that it was open. My fiend set-up in the slower run below me where there were already rising fish. This was unexpected as the hatch usually comes off at around noon. We both immediately tied on dry flies. I started with my usual searching fly for midges, a size 24 Adams. Most fishermen consider an Adams to be a mayfly imitation but in sizes below a 20, I find it to be a good searching fly for adult midges. Fewer fish were rising in my spot and I was hoping to tease one up with the Adams. My friend was not able to get an eat on the dry fly and decided to switch to a soft hackle. After only a few casts, she landed a nice 13′ brown on the soft hackle. My location was not as ideal for a swing or even maintaining a tight line, but I decided to try a size 18 soft hackle that I had recently tied. Not wanting to change my tippet, I was a little nervous swinging a soft hackle with 6X at the end of my line. After about 20 casts I gave up on the idea and went back to the dry fly. After getting what seemed like refusals on the Adams, I reached in my pocket for the 8X and after tying on a section, switched to a black Griffiths Gnat in size 26. The fly did not work right away, yet the number of rising fish was increasing in my hole. Finally, after about 20 minutes of pounding the are the area, a big head came up and ate my fly. I stood there is shock as it was so unexpected. I totally missed the set.
As the hatch picked up steam, I was looking at the adults buzzing around my head and realized that none of the midges hatching were the big buffaloes. In fact, they were 24-26 in size and very black. Looking in my midge box, I realized that I had a size 26 adult in black with a dun style hackle. After tying it on I was almost immediately rewarded with several eats and misses and finally connected and brought one to hand. Not long after, I had a second fish in the next. Realizing that I had just discovered a good match for the hatch, I yelled to my buddy “hey, tie on a small black midge if you have it”. She found one in her box and tied it on but did not have the same degree of success. Not sure the reason because there are too many variables, but heavier tippet may have played a role.
Now my black fly is totally wet and sinking. Didn’t have my Frog Fanny with me either. It was back in the truck. I took it off and came up with a substitute. It was also black and similar size, but the hackle was very thin and it did not float well. It also got no eats! After 15 minutes of casting, I took it off and reached for the previous back fly that was on my jacket’s drying patch. As I started my knot, I accidentally let go if the tag end and it fell into the river and floated away. I did not have a duplicate and decided to go back to the Griffiths Gnat which was also black. Unfortunately, it never performed. I remembered that sometimes the orange version could work when other colors did not, so I tried it and quickly got an eat and landed a fish.
Soon after, the hatch was winding down. I made a lot of casts and only landed one other fish. So eventually we called it.
Conclusion
My best days are not about catching fish, but more about my learnings. Today I learned a lot about how to fish these educated, pressured fish. Still, there is much to learn. My friend and I each ended our day with 5 fish to hand. The majority of her fish were taken on soft hackles below the surface, mine were all on top. The common thread though, is all of these fish were focused on eating midges, and we were successful because we both fished midge imitations. Another friend of ours came to our spot and fished leeches with no success. As I have learned before, when there is a hatch and/or plentiful nymphs sub-surface, the fish become hyper-focussed on that immediate food source. The pressured, highly educated fish become very precise with their pattern recognition. Meaning that they get very picky about eating an artificial. because they can likely tell the difference. I cant believe how many refusals that I got where a fish came up and even chased my fly and abruptly swam away when they got close. Probably just as many stayed down and didn’t even bother to check out the fly. I believe that tippet size matters to an educated fish. 8X is very tricky to tie on, to tie flies on, and to see, much less the delicate way you have to play the fish in order to avoid breakage.
These fish are educated, PhDs if you will, in avoiding the artificial fly. The reason is 100% due to the fishing pressure. The Provo, in particular the lower and the middle, are heavily pressured waters. In a one mile, popular section of river, there can be 40-50 fisherman in a given day, year round. It truly is combat fishing. Get to your spot early, protect it and fish it til you go home. If you like to wander, as I do, be prepared to get frustrated. Each spot you come to will be filled, unless you decide to try and move in on someone, wondering what the local etiquette is. In my experience, like today, I had a guy move in 50′ above me. This felt a little “to-close-for-comfort” but I realized that with all the fishermen on the river, you kind of have to make accommodations. He was up in the riffle and I had not seen a fish rise that far up, so I let him be. My personal exppectaion is that another angler should be no closer than a fly line length, or 100′. On big, popular rivers like the ranch section of the Henry’s Fork, 200′ is more like it, so you have to pay attention to the local custom. OK, enough about the crowds already! The point is, these fish on the Provo see a lot of artificials and it just sharpens their skills. The upside is, it also improves the skills of the fishermen who fish the Provo.
