Fishing a Sinking Line

When fishing a floating line you want the line to be a light color that will blend into the sky, something like an orange, light green, pale yellow, or even clear. Some guy in the late 1800's who was a fly fishing pioneer once said "fish fine and far off" it is still a great statement today, when fishing a floating line, remember to use a long fine leader. The most common are 9ft 4x leaders with about 3-4 ft of 5x tippet. Sometimes in clear water on sunny calm days it will be neccesary to step down to a 12ft 5x leader and 4ft of 6x tippet. The reason for this is because of how the trout think and what there predators are. There predators are basically only eagles and ospreys, rarely will there be a predator in the water. As a result, trout dont like to get near the surface of the water, they only do this when there is a big reward and little risk. The most likely time to find surface feeding fish is during a hatch on a dark windy day, when there is a hatch most of the insects will be on the surface emerging from there nymphal shucks, so the reward is high. If it is also a dark windy day, the water will be riffled and there will be a lot of glare, this will make it harder for there predators to see them, this makes the trout feel more confortable and it is less risk. So when fishing a floating line and dry fly, do what ever you can to not spook the trout, another trick to make your leader less visible is to make sure it doesn't float but is right under the surface, there is liquid that you can buy to help your leader to absorb water, if your leader is dirty however, it will sink too.

When fishing floating line you are basically searching for rising trout, the most common types of rises you will see are path-risers, that is a trout or school of trout that are swimming along on a line or path and rising to insects off the surface. When you see this you wil have to predict where the trout's path will lead them. What you do is estimate where they are going to go, then cast your dry fly to that spot, you might have pull the line in to get the fly aligned with the trout, only do this if the trout are more than 7 or 8 feet away from the fly. Next, you tighten the fly line, to do this just pull some fly line in, usually less than a foot to where there aren't any bends in the fly line. If the trout change their path or didn't take your fly, dont worry, youll usually hav eanother shot at them. The first thing you do is pick your fly line up, wait until the trout are 7 or 8 feet away from the line. If you do it too soon you will spook the fish. Next, row or motor ahead of the rising trout and repeat the procedure. You will also encounter territorial risers. These are fish that hang around a specific area and just wait until insect go through there area, they will usually be around a productive area like a shallow weed bed with some overhead cover like a fallen log. For these trout just simply cast your fly to the fish, tighten your line, and hope for the best.

Another skill you'll need to learn is how to interpret rises to figure out what the trout are feeding on. You will see four different types of rises on a lake, a boil, a gentle rise, a splashy rise, and a leaping rise. A boil is just a disturbance in the water where the fish doesn't even break the surface, this means the fish are feeding emergant insects. A gentle rise is where the fish sips something off the surface, it looks just like a boil except it leaves concentric circles or rings around the rise. This is when fish are feeding on small or helpless insects, usually insects stuck in they're shucks or fallin (dead) spinners (adult insects). a splashy rise is just like wha it sounds, this means the trout is feeding on a big or active insect. The most common insect that cause trout to do this are egg laying mayflies that buzz the waters surface, midges also are seen doing this a lot. Large insects like some caddis will also get a splashy rise from fish. A leap is when the fish clears the water, trout rarely do this because it requires a lot of energy, you ill only find fish doing this when there is little amount of food or when the insect are very large and flying above the water. Insect like damsel or dragonflies, and large mayfly or caddis that are flying near the water will sometimes cause trout to leap out of the water.