Troutbitten

Casting, drifting, swinging and stripping -- everything else is downtime. As Paul said, “Brother, there are no flying fish in Montana” — or anywhere else, for that matter. Flies in the water — that’s where we want them. A trout at the end of the line. That’s what we’re aiming for. But there are seemingly endless tasks required for a fishing trip. And how we approach those chores really defines the...

Season Three begins with a round-table discussion about fishermen's secrets and what happens when we give up the most sensitive of them -- spot burning. My full panel of fishing buddies is back for this third season: Austin Dando, Trevor Smith, Josh Darling, Bill Dell and now Matt Grobe. We kick off season three with one of the most contentious topics in fly fishing. Holding secrets is human...

Hello, friends. Season two of the Troutbitten podcast is finished, and season three begins soon. So in this off week, I have something a little special for you. Recently, I was a guest on the Wet Fly Swing podcast with Dave Stewart . So this is a feed drop of that episode in full. Dave runs a great show, and he’s been at it for a long time. I was happy to be a guest for the second time with Dave....

Season Two concludes with a round table discussion for answering the most common questions about tight line and euro nymphing skills. My full panel of friends, Austin, Bill, Trevor and Josh join me to get deep in the weeds of the tactics, to clear up misconceptions, and offer their own ideas. As Episode nine published, I realized there were many questions left to be answered. Daily, I received mes...

Here we are at the finish line. In this ninth installment of this Troutbitten Skills Series, my friend, Austin Dando, and I walk through some of the best tips for putting it all together. Because this set of skills, performed in order and flowing from one to the next, results in a great drift that starts and finishes in a convincing, trout-catching presentation. Here are those nine skills: Angle a...

The strike is the best part of fishing. It’s what we’re all out there waiting for, or rather, what we’re trying to make happen all day long. And the trout eats because we get so many things right. When the fish strikes, we strike back. Short, swift and effective, the hook finds flesh. Then we try to keep the trout buttoned up, and get it to the net. In this podcast episode, there are two types of...

Part Seven of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on guiding the flies. Once the nymphs are cast and settled into the target seam, it's time to take them to the trout. Guiding the flies is a blend of two skills that I call leading and tracking. At the core, this skill of guiding the flies is fishing the flies. And this is what anglers tend to focus on most — for good reason. It’s the longe...

Part six of this Troutbitten Skills Series is about locating the strike zone. This zone of water -- this cushion near the bottom of the river -- is the default target and the baseline location for our flies. Most of what happens in a river occurs in the strike zone. It's where the trout spend most of their time. It's where the bugs and baitfish live. Understanding everything about the st...

Part five of this Troutbitten Skills Series is about finding contact. Because after the tuck cast , after we stick the landing and begin to recover slack , we need to find contact on sighter. Contact is visual. It's about reading the sighter to know that we are in touch with the flies from rod tip to the nymph or split shot. It's not about touching or ticking the riverbed. Instead, the c...

Part four of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on recovering slack. To dead drift a nymph, we cast it upstream. And as the river flows downstream, it sends the fly back toward us, creating slack. Usually, we simply pick up that slack and maintain contact with the fly (sometimes directly, sometimes slightly). Slack maintenance is a critical skill. It’s line management. And if the goal is to be...

Part three of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on sticking the landing. Because after putting ourselves in great position to present the fly, we shouldn't waste the perfect tuck cast and delivery. As the fly hits the water, all the elements of our system are in position and ready to drift. That's sticking the landing. Like a gymnast who tumbles, somersaults and then lands on two fe...

Part two of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on the tuck cast. A good tuck is a turnover cast -- where the loops unfolds completely in the air. In fact, a tuck cast is a fly-first entry, and it's perfect for setting up the tight line advantage, where we keep everything up and out of the water that we possibly can. We tuck cast not just to get deeper, but to setup the fly, tippet, sighte...

Season two of the Troutbitten podcast comes in a new format. It's a mini-series of connected episodes that build out a set of specific tactics. The topic for this first skills series is the Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing, and I'm joined by my friend, Austin Dando. (Season three will return to my full panel of friends, with longer form discussion about all things f...

Episode 15 is for story telling. And I'm joined by my friends, Bill, Josh, Austin and Trevor to share memories and make a few plans. This is the final episode for season one of the Troutbitten Podcast. And at the tail end of this busy year, it's a great time for reflections and resolutions. My friends and I share a few lighthearted stories about the dumbest things we've ever done on...

Episode 14 is a deep dive into winter fishing tactics. And I'm joined by my friends, Bill, Josh, Austin and Trevor. Because the trout have different habits in the winter, we refine our approach to meet them on their own terms. Is that . . . low and slow? Sure, sometimes. Nymphing is often seen as the go-to approach, but for the winter trout angler who’s attentive, the opportunities for some g...

In this episode, I get together with my long time friend, Matt Grobe, for a candid, entertaining, fun and technical discussion about wild trout, big trout, and the differences between the fishing cultures and opportunities available in two of the meccas for trout fishing in the states -- Pennsylvania and Montana. Matt has lived and fished hard in both states, and he's been fortunate enough to...

In Episode 12, my friends and I talk about nymphing tactics — specifically, how we take tight line principles and the tight line advantage over to an indicator nymphing system. We know that with refined skills and tactics, we can often make something happen, even on slow days. And there’s really no better way to consistently fool trout — in all conditions — than to get good drifts with a nymph. Th...

Pushing through the tough times — dealing with bad weather and difficult conditions — puts you one step ahead of most anglers. The rivers and the parking lots are empty when the wind is howling, the snow is blowing or it’s pouring rain. Sure, we’d all like to fish the sweetheart days. But the more you learn to fight the elements and win — to have success on the water — the more you long for those...

In this tenth podcast, I read a story that I first published with Hatch Magazine in 2016 . It’s titled, The Kid, and it’s one of my favorites. My sons Joey (13) and Aiden (11) join me for the question and answer round. They answer a few questions, and they read a few from podcast listeners. Way back in 2014, I started Troutbitten as a way to document all of this for my two sons. I wanted a record...

While fishing a streamer, we’re trying to make it look alive . That's the difference. Because, while fly fishing other styles, we spend so much of our time dead drifting dry flies and nymphs and trying to impart no motion, that switching to streamers is a relief. It’s liberating. It’s fun. And so many presentations — so many looks to the streamer — can be attractive and convincing. Because ev...

We’re out there to catch trout. That’s what brings us to the water. But how many do we catch? And really, how many should we catch? What are the expectations? And how can we know that we’re fishing well? In some way, maybe none of this matters. It’s not really about numbers, right? it’s about the experience. Sure it is. And we all agree with that. But as I’ve written on Troutbitten, there are two...

This is our seventh podcast episode in the first season. And we’ve done this enough now to get into a rhythm. If you’ve listened to previous episodes, you know that we’ve kept the topics tightly focused on just one aspect of fly fishing for trout. And before we dig into those topics we always do a question and answer session with my friends. But in this episode we mix it up. This is the Freewheeli...

In this episode, my friends join me to share some of their best tips for reading water — seeing a trout stream, recognizing the currents in a river that hold trout and having the confidence to target them. Then we get into the philosophy of Cherry Picking or Full Coverage. That is, the speed at which we cover water. How fast do you move from one place to the next? And what are the merits of hole h...

After hundreds of Troutbitten articles featuring the versatility of the Mono Rig, now there's a podcast. My friends Josh, Austin, Trevor and Bill join me to discuss how each of us fishes this hybrid rig as a complete fly fishing system, detailing the ultimate flexibility of this amazing tool. The Troutbitten Mono Rig is a hybrid system for fishing all types of flies: nymphs (both tight line a...

Keep wild trout wild. Not all trout are created equal, and there are many differences in the trout we catch -- in their appearances and their behaviors. Wild trout, stocked trout, holdover trout, fingerlings and club fish are very much a different breed -- or at least they can seem that way. My friends join me for an honest discussion about the trout we pursue. All of us fish for every kind of tro...