Difficult Wild Trout - Dry Fly
JT recently guided Tom and his mate on their home river in challenging conditions, with bright sunshine and strong winds making casting difficult.
JT was guiding for Tom and his mate on their ‘home’ river recently in seriously unfavourable conditions. The bright sunshine and howling downstream gale made all fishing methods tricky to say the least. At least with the euronymphing setups the lads had the weight of the nymphs to help turn their leaders over, but when JT spotted a large rising trout under a tree it was going to have to be a dry fly.
Various problems to solve here:
- the fly choice
- turnover into a strong wind
- trees overhead
Careful observation of the fish and its gentle sipping rises gave away that it was probably feeding on midges, so the Paraduster was the obvious choice of fly.
A steeply tapering leader (Varivas Pro-DRY) with a short tippet (Stroft ABR) would fire the fly into the wind.
And Tom was advised to adopt a side cast parallel to the water to stay clear of the trees.
The result is in the photo! One very happy angler and one very happy guide.
Tom sent JT an email the following evening: “Thank you for a fantastic day yesterday I learned so much from you - techniques, tips and setups. You are a guiding superstar. Catching the lovely brownie on the dry was the icing on the cake."
