I had the opportunity to fish the American with Ryan Miller and Jason Hartwick this week.
Since the American is an urban fishery, some strange things can happen from time to time. If you have spent any time out on the water during the summer, you know exactly what I am talking about (there is nothing like a 60 year old dude in a thong with huge beer belly swimming around while you are fishing). But if you can look past some of the short-comings, you will find a local area with plenty of opportunity to catch some fish and hone your skills.
There are still still some winter steelhead around and I am anticipating that the blue backs should be arriving soon. We did end up with a few good pulls and I was able to land the above fish. Nothing special but he put on a pretty good acrobatic show and pulled out some line.
I often take a few different approaches when it comes to swinging flies for winter fish. The approach used is dependent upon factors such as water speed/depth, water clarity, and my position when fishing with others just to name a few.
As my title depicts, getting deeper can sometimes increase you chances at enticing a grab from a fish that may be unwilling to move far for a fly. The above fish was caught in 4+ feet of water on a rig I would consider to be fairly heavy (heavy tip and moderately weighted fly) . Would that fish have taken an unweighted fly presented on a lighter sink tip? No one can say for sure.
So how do we get our presentations deeper? Sink tips, weighted flies, casting angle, and line manipulation (after the cast) all play a role in the depth and presentation of your fly. Balancing these factors correctly will result in a slow presentation at the desired depth but get one or more of these factors out of line and you will be tying on a new fly, presenting the fly at Daytona 500 speeds, or not achieve the desired depth to entice the fish.
I will be adding a series of posts that will put all these techniques together and give some clarity into attaining the desired depth.
The tug is the drug.
Adrian
