3 Tips for Catching Reluctant Trout
We’ve all had days on the water when the fish just don’t want to cooperate. We’ve sampled the water, matched the hatch, and even after tying on all of our tried and true patterns, these even fall short and fail to elicit a rise from trout. Trout get lazy or fly-shy for a number of reasons, including: heavy fishing pressure, low flows, and cold-water temperatures. If we want to avoid getting skunked and stir some life into these fish, we’re going to need to dig a little deeper into our fly box and apply these three principles.
Go Smaller – When fishing to skittish or lazy fish, casting a large fly on the water can elicit the same response as throwing a rock in the pond: you are going to scare the fish! Paring down your flies a couple of sizes that are slender in profile tends to put fish at ease. Small insects in (hook) size 18-22 make up the majority of the trout’s diet year-round and presenting them with smaller flies get them ready to eat.