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An Introduction To River Fishing - Part 1

Our April 2000 contribution from Terry Lawton

Although some people will accuse me of stating the obvious, one big difference between stillwater and river fishing is the fact that the water in rivers is moving. Stillwaters are, essentially, just that: although there may be surface movement due to the wind, for example. But when you first cast a fly upstream, one minute it is upstream from you and the next - depending on the speed of flow - there it is back at your feet and soon sailing away past you and off down stream. Don't panic but retrieve your line and cast back upstream again: this time you will be ready and start retrieving as your fly comes back to you.

Once you have put your tackle together and are standing on the river bank, where do you start? First, just stand and have a look at where you are and what is happening. Rivers - like stillwaters - have good places to fish as well as less good ones. Trout in rivers are territorial and the biggest fish will have the best lie. If you find such a lie and catch a fish there, the chances are that the fish you caught will soon be replaced by another, not always immediately but sooner or later.

Most rivers and streams have clear runs, pools which are deeper and often wider areas of water, and riffles which are faster flowing areas of water, usually separating one pool form another. Fish lie in places where they do not have to work hard to maintain their position, there is plenty of food passing by and they are protected from predators, particularly those overhead (herons and cormorants). Such lies can be expected in the low pressure area in front of a rock, boulder or upright of a bridge or other obstructions, weed beds, on the outside of bends in the slower flow, where the bank has been undercut and, particularly in hot weather, in fast flows where there is plenty of oxygen. Even a depression in the river bed can be enough to allow a trout to lie just below the main flow of the river.

As with stillwaters, don't be surprised if you see fish lying close to the bank or within a few feet of where you are standing (if your approach to the river has not frighten everything away!). This is also why when your cast lands in bankside vegetation you should attempt tweak your fly onto the water (see The wrong hook-ups further down the page), often converting a bad cast into a cast that might fool a fish. When fish are lying close to the far bank of the river, as a frined said to me one, if you don't drop your fly on the far bank every now and then, you are not casting close enough. Yes, they can be that close.

The next thing to look for is fly life. Are there flies hatching? Can you see a fish that is rising or, perhaps, feeding on nymphs underwater? If there are flies hatching and fish feeding on them, you will have a chance of catching a fish on a dry fly. If there are no or only a few flies to be seen, a nymph will be a better option. Before you start casting, scan the water between you and the fish to make sure that there is not another one between you, that you cannot see. If you see more than one fish within casting distance, always try to catch the fish nearest to you. If you don't, it is very likely that your line will frighten the nearer fish which will rush off upstream and frighten the one you really wanted to try to catch.

Fish have to lie facing upstream so that water flows through their gills and they can breathe. We fish upstream so that we approach our quarry from behind where, we hope, it cannot see us. Fish have a wide angle of vision but they have a blind spot when approached from behind. The lower a fish lies in the water, the wider the angle of view and the better chance it has of seeing approaching fishermen. When you cast to a fish, try to cast up stream and across as this helps to keep the line away from the fish. If you cast straight upstream over the back of a fish, you will be very likely to frighten it.

Drag is the number enemy of the river fisherman. Drag takes two main forms: visible and obvious, and unseen and often the reason why we do not always catch fish with every good cast. The most common reason that drag occurs is your line or leader, or both, cross an area of faster or slower current so that they move at a diffrent speed from your fly. Drag can be seen by your fly making a V wake on the surface. When fishing with nymphs below the surface, drag can still occur and you may not be aware of the problem. Sometimes we may want to make a fly drag, for example to imitate a sedge fluttering across the surface. Normally we want to avoid drag at all costs. This can be done by taking care where you cast or using a specific cast that, perhaps, puts plenty of slack into the line to give your fly a chance to drift unimpeded before drag sets in.

To find out all about nymph fishing - the agony and the ecstasy - see http:fishandfly.co.uk/tledit0999.html (part one) and subsequent articles.

If you start fishing with a dry fly - which has the added benefit that you can see the fly and, all being well, it being taken by a fish - you need to cast far enough in front of (upstream) of it so that the fish has a chance to see your fly as it floats down stream. Just how far will depend, largely, on the speed of the current. But start by aiming at least three feet in front. As soon as your fly lands on the water, carefully strip-in any slack line and then keep stripping-in your line, to keep contact with the fly, as it floats towards you. If you have too much slack in your line, should the fish rise to your fly, it is highly likely that you will not be able to tighten your line and set the hook. Take care not to recover line too quickly as this may make your fly drag which is usually guaranteed to put a fish down.

Wait until your fly is well downstream from your target fish before lifting off and casting again. There are two reasons for this: one, you are lesslikely to scare your fish and two, your fly may pass over another fish which may rise to it. If you felt that your cast was not long enough, you will need to pull more line off the reel and cast further upstream. Conversely, too long a cast means that you should sharten your line. Aim to keep the end of the fly line out of the trout's vision by casting to the side of the fish or just putting the leader over the fish.

In river fishing you will be on the move, fishing your way upstream, looking for feeding fish and likely spots to fish. When you have been fishing a stretch of water for a while and want to move elsewhere, reel in your line and instead of hooking your fly in to the keeper ring often found just above the handle, loop the line round the reel and hook the fly into the top ring on your rod. Now, as you move to your next fishing spot, if a fish shows itself on the way, when you unhook the fly from the top ring and un-loop the line from around the reel, you will have enough line beyond the top ring to start casting immediately. If you hook the fly onto the keeper ring, you may not even have all the leader beyond the top ring, let alone enough line to make a quick cast.

The wrong hook-ups

Sooner or later every fisherman gets his fly caught in the bankside vegetation, snagged in the river bed or up a tree. The first thing to do is not to start yanking the line with your rod as hard as you can. You could end up with the fly in your eye or a broken rod. Take things gently.

A fly that has got caught in bankside vegetation can often be carefully twitched or pulled free to drop on to the water and into the mouth of a waiting trout.

If your fly is caught in the bottom or underwater, retrieve the slack line, point your rod down the line and pull gently but firmly. If the fly does not come free, try pulling from a different angle. It is a rare occurrence that the fly will not come free with gentle but firm pressure. You will rarely need to break your tippet and lose the fly. Another technique that can work is a vigorous upstream roll cast that will pull your fly in the opposite direction.

With a fly caught in a tree, the first thing to do is to try gentle pressure by again pointing your rod along the line. Don't use your rod to attempt to lever the fly free. If pressure does not work, pull in the slack line as you walk towards the tree or bush. Now push your rod all the way up the line and over the leader so that the fly is wedged in the top ring; you may need to pull the branch down to do this. Keep pushing, holding the line tight, using the top ring as a disgorger. This method will work and free your fly nine times out of 10, from even quite high branches, as long as you can get your rod tip up to the fly.

I am a great believer in the fact that you won't catch fish unless you are fishing. And I have caught fish at the most unlikely of times. As well as taking every opportunity you can to go fishing, once you have started fishing, keep your fly on the water and don't waste time with lots of unnecessary false casts or for ever changing your fly.

In the next part of this series we will look fly selection, tactics and fishing methods in more detail.