Fly Fishing Terms You Might Not Know

Fly fisherman above Ojo Calenti Bend on the Fi...

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In the world of fly fishing there are many words that are good to know. Some of the fly fishing terms are a bit unusual or may mean something else to most who don’t fly fish. Here is a list of some of the more unusual and double meaning words utilised by fly fishers.

Action: an over-all term often accustomed to try to describe the design of the rod – such as sft, hard, slow, or fast

Attractor: usually a bright colored fly that’s not usually tied so it imitates a specific type of food

Belly: the sagging percentage of a fly fishing line

Blank: a rod with out a handle, reel seat, or guides

Blood Knot: the most popular name for a barrel knot

Chalk Stream: a stream, usually found in valleys, that is spring fed and slow moving with plenty of vegetation

Complex Hatch: the simultaneous hatching of countless types of type of insects

Compound Hatch: the masking, or hiding, of an hatch of smaller insects with a hatch of larger insects occurring on the same day

Cutthroat Trout: a genuine trout that is certainly found mostly inside the western the main United States

Dapping: a fly fishing technique in which the fly is repeatedly bounced off and on of the top of the water

Down Eye Hook: a hook which has the eye bent below the shaft

Dropper: the secondary fly which is attached to the leader inside a cast of flies

Emerger: a condition that is used to describe any insect that moves up towards water’s surface preparing to hatch in the adult stage

Feeding Lie: the place where a trout goes into order to actively feed

Flat-butt Leader: a fly utilized in fly fishing in which the butt section is actually created into a ribbon shape

Freestone Streams: quick, tumbling streams with rock covered bottoms

French Snap: a smaller clamp, often utilised by a fly fisherman to install his net to his vest

Holding Lie: when a trout generally remains you should definitely actively feeding

Leisenring Lift: an approach used in nymph fly fishing where the line is lifted, inducing the imitation fly to go upwards, in front from the trout’s suspected lie

Midge Rod: a short, light weight rod

Natural: – a full time income insect, in contrast to an artificial, or man-made, insect or fly

Nymphing: any oaf the different fishing methods of which the fly fisherman presents an imitation with the underwater stage of your insect

Presentation: the process of locating a fly the location where the fish is probably to see it; includes the way in which in which the cast in completed and the method in which the fly is fished

Rise: the action of the fish taking an insect from the water’s surface

Run: a condition used to describe a particular stretch of moving water

Shooting: a casting technique

Spate: high water

Stripping: quickly retrieving line or pulling line through the reel

Terrestrial: of or in relation to an insect whose life-cycle is completely spent on land or even in plants

Waders staff: a sturdy rod about of up to the armpit of the individual fly fishing used by support in heavy water

There are several words and terms which can be unfamiliar to many people but not to those who enjoy fishing.

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5 Tips For Better Trout Fishing Success

Gary Borger Scientific Anglers ''Fly Fishing for Trout'' Video - DVD - Line/term/acc/boatsWhen it comes to fishing around the world trout fishing seems to be the most popular for most anglers. I would have to agree with that most of the time although bass fishing puts up a good fight for first place among sports fishers like myself here in North America.

I have been fishing for these rather abundant yet crafty fish using my spinning gear and fly fishing gear for about half a century. Trout fishing just never gets old whether I’m fishing a lake, pond, river or brook.

I live in North America, Canada actually and we have trout all the way from the east coast, where I currently live to the west coast where I’d love to take a fishing trip some day. The trout in it’s many forms such as brookies or speckled, rainbow, brown and even lake trout are all over most parts of North America but they are not limited to N.A.

The Trout Habitat I Love To Fish

I really don’t find fishing lakes for trout as exciting as I do fly fishing a stream for brookies probably because a brook is so much more visual. But I won’t turn down a trip to a lake for some trout fishing.

One of my best fishing trips was a fly in trip into Quebec for lake trout and pike. A fishing trip I will not soon forget as I got to sight fish for spawning lake trout, my first chance to fly fish for lake trout.

We have rivers here in New Brunswick with Brown trout in them. I didn’t even realize we had brown trout here so you can imagine how excited I was when I landed my first brown trout ever in a brook I was fishing for brook trout in.

trout fishing tipsLuck can be a big part of fishing and I enjoy making a cast that hooks into a fish I didn’t expect.

My fishing buddies tend to think I’m lucky or have horse shoes up my behind when I catch a big one.  Of course when it’s them that makes the big catch it’s all skill.

The truth is there are always a few things you can learn to do while fishing that will make you a better trout angler.

  1. When trout fishing a stream don’t get in the water until you have evaluated the lay of the water and structure. What’s happening in and around the water that will tell you want might be happening under the water.
  2. Knowing what the trout are feeding on will give you a big advantage so follow step one first and then step two is to turn over a few rocks that are under the water to see what kind of life is living there, then use a bait that matches what you find.
  3. Having taken the time to read the water and surrounding for indicators of what the trout are feeding on and you have turned a few rock you now need to get your bait or fly where the fish live, but not on top of their head as you will spook them and never catch much other than dumb fish which are usually quite young and small.
  4. Situate yourself so that you are not in a feeding lane and then cast ahead of the fish so that the bait or fly will drift into the fishes feeding zone. You are much more likely to get that big one when you’re stealthy.
  5. Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to trout fishing as they are extremely easy to spook. Practice patience and you will do much better. When you accidently slap your bait or fly on the water and spook a fish, stop, take a break to give the fish a few minutes to calm down. That’s when you get the big one and the other guy gets skunked.

Bonus Trout Fishing Tip

A real key to successful trout fishing is to go with a fishing setup that will give you the most excitement and sometimes that means going with a light setup for those smaller trout. I have so much more fun when I am fishing light tackle or fly fishing setup that matches the size of the trout I am fishing.

These 5 useful trout fishing tips will help you catch more trout and even bigger trout in the same water you couldn’t catch them before. Happy fishing and remember to take a kid fishing, it could change their life like it did mine.

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3 Fly Fishing Tips To Help Catch More Brook Trout

fly fishing for brook troutMy love of fishing began just about 50 years ago when I moved from Toronto to a foster home in the country. It was a 100 acre beef farm with a river running through the back end. I spent a lot of hours fishing for catfish. It was were I went get rid of stress.

Those memories of fishing are as fresh in my mind today as they were 50 years ago. Take a kid fishing and change a life.

I couldn’t wait to get out of that foster home and eventually moved to New Brunswick Canada where I still had blood relatives.

It was New Brunswick where I learned how to use a fly rod for the first time and spent the next 5 years finding and fly fishing every trout streams, brook and beaver pond I could find. I also spent a lot of time fly fishing for Atlantic salmon but that’s for another post.

Trout Fishing Tip #1 – Patience Wins The Day

As many years as I have been fishing I still get more excited the closer I get to a fishing spot.

I used to be the first to the water and usually the first to catch a fish but I wonder just how many bigger, wiser fish I spooked being in such a hurry.

I remember watching brother-in-law Joe, the guy who taught me to use a fly rod. He was slow and pokey but it turns out that he was more methodical about fly fishing and would always catch the bigger fish. it took me a few years to calm down enough to pay attention to him.

Joe would get all geared up, then he would creep down to the edge of the water, find a comfy rock and have a coffee while watching what was going on in and around the water.

Trout Fishing Tip #2 – Being Stealthy Wins The Day, Again

I learned a bit of patience from Joe but I learned to be a stealthy fly fishing from a college professor who was an avid fly fisher.

My professor asked me if I wanted to go fly fishing after supper as he knew I carried my fishing gear everywhere I went.

Well he took me to a spot I have fished many times and caught some nice fat 12 and 13 inch brookies. Nothing any bigger than that there, I thought.

Well I was about to find out there were much bigger brookies in that brook.

We didn’t take the same path I usually took to fish this spot. He took me up river a bit where we crossed to the other side and came back down to where I usually start fishing.

Before getting to the brook he started to crouch and almost crawled to a tree right on the river bank. From behind the tree he pointed out a little riffle of water going under an overhanging tree on the other bank.

He made one false cast to get the line out and then changed his direction and landed a small dry fly at the beginning of the riffle and let it drift under the tree. A huge splash and he had on a brook trout that could eat the trout I usually catch there.

I was blown away when he netted the first 18 inch brook trout I had ever seen.

He said to give that spot a break for a few minutes and we moved to the next spot where he did the same thing. Kinda crawled to a spot he could get a good cast with his fly, without being seen by any fish. Heck I used to just walk up and start casting.

This time he hooked into a 16 inch brookie.

The next spot it was my turn. I did all the stealth and tried to keep low in the tall grass. I had a bit of trouble making a cast in that position and my fly slapped the water. Big mistake when you’re fly fishing spooky fish like brook trout.

I did hook a 13 inch brook trout. Guess he wasn’t as smart as those bigger brookies who took off when I smacked the water.

Trout Fishing Tip #3 – Learn To Read The Water

reading brook trout waterBack to brother-in-law Joe who taught me to fly fish with a bit of patience. Well Joe also taught me about reading my surroundings. Something I have taught many people over the years.

He’d sit there sipping his coffee and reading the river for potential fish locations were we could take a fish.

Once he had them pointed out we would watch those spots. It was amazing to me when we would see a brookie take something from the surface, exactly where he showed me.

The more I observed the better I got at observing which showed in the numbers of fish I was catching on the fly. I actually got to the point where people I took fishing were impressed with my talents, talents I had to learn from others.

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Hey What Kind of Trout Is That?

a-day-of-fishingOur son Steve and his buddy Robin both bought their fishing license this year. They’ve even been out fishing twice already. Even with the water as high as it has been.

They asked me were they could go close to Moncton and I told them of a great spot Kerry and I had fished where we had the best trout fishing day of the year.

This is actually the only spot in New Brunswick I have ever caught brown trout. They are fun to catch and fight and jump better than the brookies, very acrobatic fish and beautifully coloured as well.

I was sure how high the water would be there but it was not far away so they took their back roads map book and head there.

When Kerry and I had gone we took main roads to get there but I had shown Robin a shorter road, not realizing one of the roads was a dirt road and some of it was washed out.

They spent a little over an hour getting out of a big ole mud hole and then turned around and took the same route Kerry and I had taken.

This little spot can take you all day to fish so it’s good to hide a big to get back to the vehicle or taking two vehicles would work well as well.

I can thank my fishing buddy Roland for this great fishing spot.

I’m looking forward to taking Jamie to this spot where we can take both our spinning rods and our fly rods as there is a lot of this brook that’s open enough for the fly rods.

Anyways back to Steve and Robin’s day.

robin-trout-fishing
Robin Trout Fishing

I can see from the pictures Steve took that the river is up a little and the water’s running a bit faster but quite fish-able.

It was raining and heavy clouds so the lighting was the greatest for taking pictures so they may seem a little dark.

robin-flounder
Robin Caught A Huge Flounder, Well Maybe Not Huge

By the time they were ready to come back home they kind lost track of where they were. Do we go left back to the road or was it right, hmmm.

Hey look there’s a guy that knows how to get to the highway.

porcupine

So they managed to find their way to the truck, thanks to Porky.

The boys were using worms on a few Mepps and Red Devils.

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Muddler Minnow-A Fly Fisher’s Fly

Fly Fishing Muddler Minnows

If I had to pick only one fly I could only fish with all year long, I would have to choose the Muddler Minnow. I like this fly pattern because it is so versatile, and it seems to produce on big rivers, small streams, and lakes. Popular sizes ranges from size 4 down to size 10 and it doesn’t have to be tied perfect to be effective. In fact, I have a friend of mine who once told me that “the worse it looks, the more fish it catches.” So if you are tying your own Muddlers and they don’t look that good, do not worry they may still catch fish.

The Muddler Minnow is a great fly for Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Brook Trout, Steelhead, and most other game fish. This fly has two major things going for it. First, it looks like a wide variety of fish forage. For example, to the fish, a large Muddler may look like a grasshopper, big stonefly, or even a small field mouse. The smaller Muddlers may look like caddis flies, small minnows, or small sculpins. Second, it can be fished just about any way you want using a dry line or a wet line, dead drifted on the surface, down and across the current, or cast and striping the fly. Don’t be afraid to give the Muddler some action. Make it look like alive trying to get away from a predator, or make it look like a big fly trying to get off the surface of the water.

A Muddler Minnow fishing tip that works when fishing slower currents or lake fishing: Cast out to a spot. As soon as the fly hits the water, twitch the fly a couple of times while stripping in about 2 feet of line, and then let it sit for 5 seconds, then twitch and strip in again working the fly back to you. Make another cast to a different spot about 6 feet from the first spot. Try not to fish over the same place over and over.

Just as there are endless variations of the Muddler Minnow, there are just as many ways to fish the Muddler. For example, in the summer, you can fish it like a hopper; twitch and pause making it look like a big insect has just fallen in the water. Skate the Muddler, and make it wake across the current while at the same time giving the fly the action of an injured minnow trying to escape a charging predator. In the springtime try the smaller sizes, and fish the fly with a sinking tip line close to shore, giving it a short stripping action. During early mornings and late evening of summer and fall use the larger sizes of the Muddler, giving it action along the edges of deep pools and cut banks.

Please remember to be careful while you are on the river, do not harm our wonderful land, don’t litter, and please practice catch and release for the next generation.

Stanley Stanton is an Oregon Fly Fishing Guide and McKenzie River fly fishing guide, Visit: http://www.oregon-fly-fishing-with-stan.com For additional fly fishing tips and information about Fly-fishing for Rainbow Trout, Steelhead Fly fishing and salmon fishing. Email: stan@oregon-fly-fishing-with-stan.com The above author authorizes distribution of this article and that it be reprinted or Published in its entirety, including this resource box.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stanley_Stanton

Tying the Muddler minnow I use is pretty straightforward. Check it out the Muddler minnow in our fly tying section.

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Look out Chain pickerel, we have some extremely hard to resist flies that have your name on them. But fear not as we always practice CPR, catch, photo and release and sometimes a little kiss just before we send you back to family and friends again.

chain-pickerel-with-caseyHey, we’re trying to take a picture here.

Casey and Jamie have taken me fishing so much in past few years I could never say thanks enough but in that time they have never done any fly fishing for pickerel so you can imagine my surprise when Casey emailed asking if I have any flies for chain pickerel. I am so looking forward to 2011.

My first adventure for pickerel on the fly was with my fishing friends Roland and Paul. We headed out on a little body of water I won’t mention here but we were in our float tubes. At the beginning it didn’t look like we were going to catch anything making us wonder if there were any fish in this place.

Once we reached the opposite side from where we launched our float tubes we had our first attack and then it was non-stop for hours and hours. We didn’t hook into any large pickerel on this trip but we did get into numbers that had us laughing for most of the day. I showed Jamie this little spot as we passed it on our way to do some trout fishing on the fly and I am sure we will be there with the float tubes this year.

Some of the flies we used on that trip were small brook trout dry flies, the same kind that I caught my very first pickerel with. They worked really well. Of course we had to a few Atlantic salmon flies, like the Mickey Finn. They worked as well but the three of us really love the top water action so we went back to top water flies like deer hair bugs and poppers I tie for the smallmouth bass I fly fishing trips.

I am going to be tying a few of the flies I have mentions, enough for Casey, Jamie and myself but I have also been looking online to see what other flies I might want to tie that will attract more chain pickerel.

Wooly Bugger Leech Pattern

I really like the wooly bugger, leech pattern and so does the chain pickerel here in New Brunswick but they didn’t last very long as we were fishing without any leader and I lost the only two wooly buggers I had. So I will certainly be tying a few wooly bugger patterns for the three of us, however this time around I will be sure to use some fluorocarbon leader and maybe keep those flies longer than one cast each.

Tip For Fishing The Wooly Bugger – It took me a little while to figure out the best retrieve for the wooly bugger but the minute I got it right I had immediate action. Kind of like the pickerel was looking at the leech and wondering why it didn’t swim right. Once I started giving it about 6 inch stripes and pausing they would strike and strike hard.

I am going to start with the wooly bugger and I will tie up a hand full of those. Then I will look up a pattern for a popper for next week and tie some of those. At that time I will add another video showing how it’s tied. Untill then enjoy the video and hope to see you on the water.

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Fly Fishing Chain Pickerel in New Brunswick

Chain pickerel (Esox niger).
Image via Wikipedia

I spent my childhood years in Ontario, back in the 1960s and was led to believe that walleye were called pickerel. It wasn’t until I was 30 and had moved to New Brunswick that I caught my first pickerel and learned they are not even the same species. What was that all about?

Pickerel also go by “federation pickerel” and in southeastern U.S. they are nicknamed “southern pike”.

Caught My First Chain Pickerel on The Fly

I feel lucky having hooked my first chain pickerel on the flyrod. Because it was a happy accident. A friend and I were actually fishing for brook trout on the fly.

Fishing A Flooded Forest on The Fly Rod

It seems like a very long time ago I had been visiting a flyfishing friend. Wayne was going to show me a little spot he wants to keep quiet about. He told me we would land some large brook trout on the fly.

When we arrived I could hardly believe that he expected me to actually use a fly fishing rod in there. The place was a stand of trees that had been flooded a couple of years before after busy beavers had blocked the flow of water and flooded a large patch of woods.

Wayne told me there were 16″ brookies living there. I didn’t call him a liar nevertheless I’d been considering it. However I became a believer soon after he landed the first 16″ brookie.

Fishing in trees was a brand new experience. I’d fished rivers and lakes for brookies using my fly rod, had even learned to deal with trees behind me but not a forest all about me.

I spent most of my time avoiding trees but did get some brookies. As usual when it comes time to leave I always have to get a few more casts. The second I lifted the fly off the surface for my final cast a pencil like 10 inch fish came flying out of the water and grabbed that dry fly.

I couldn’t imagine how intense that tiny fish was. That is the day I discovered the difference between a walleye and a pickerel.

Today I fish pickerel any chance I can. My personal best continues to grow from that first 10″ chain pickerel to 25 inches.

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