The Fall, as it’s fondly referred to in the US, is my favourite time to test out new fly patterns. It’s those golden weeks before the leaves turn brown that the Trout feed freely and often languorously so.
It all depends on the water temperature, but before their often aggressive spawning behavior, there’s a window in which a Trout’s focus is exclusively on the food chain and it’s a real buffet for the fish’s’ palate. Minnows and Platanna abound, as do many invertebrates. The hatches might not equal the slightly warmer months, but there’s no shortage of adult insects flying around to tell you what to strap on.
Our still waters are dominated by float tubes / v-boats and when fishing any decent sized dam, you can understand why. But many of us have adopted a lazy boy approach to this very distinct style of fly fishing, which at this time of year can be detrimental to one’s catch records. Finning around a dam at high speed might induce a reaction, but a more considered approach will net your more fish.
Trout hug the weedbeds for cover and ease of food access, and at this time of year, if you want to find the fish, find this, their pantry!
We tend to moan about weed in a dam far too much, as it interferes and irritates our clean retrieval, but we really should focus on spending more time in and around this habitat, especially in Autumn.
An effective strategy is to place yourself in the weedbed, literally, and make sure you’re in casting distance of the holes or channels. You ideally want a floating or hover line, so you can control the retrieve and be presenting just your leader and flies into these zones. I like to have a tandem rig comprising of a slightly weighted larger profile fly followed by a weightless smaller pattern on point……be prepared for a take on the drop! If allowed to settle, the retrieve is a short / gentle one (you can also fish this static), but the key is to keep your fly in the zone longer.
Don’t give up on a hole too soon, try an alternative fly to your first choice on point before abandoning where the fish should be holding,
The takes can be surprisingly subtle, you might actually think you’ve hooked some weed, in fact very often as I pull my fly out of a little weed snag does it induce a take.
One of the most productive habits to condition yourself to on every retrieve, is changing the trajectory of your fly, which is a simple piece of muscle memory. This is very effective on an intermediate or sinking line, as whatever your pattern, generally your fly is moving horizontally through the water column and by simply lifting your arm ( when you have about 5 meters of line left in the water, if you line doesn’t have a hang marker), you are pulling the fly vertically up. This triggers a response from any following fish, with strikes occurring as close as your flippers, so be prepared. It also obviously also works on a floating line, but with a weighted rig, you are working your flies vertically through the water column anyway.
Everyone has their go to rig, but you won’t go wrong on an imitative green or brown dragon, trailed by a delicate red eyed damsel…..it is after all the Year of the Dragon.
Take nothing away from a minnow variation fished in deeper water, but you have all day to do this and the satisfaction from finessing a fish from it’s comfort zone is hard to beat. So don’t be quick to rip and strip at pace in open water if your dam has a good deal of weed structure, fish the spaces in between and keep your fly in the water longer.
Here’s to the Trout chasing the dragon.
