 Standing in a river or on a riverbank has a calming effect as an angler. You’re surrounded by nature, feet in the water and just the anticipation of a tug brings an optimistic smile to your face. You access the situation, check for bugs, seams, structure and water depth. And then, with fair confidence, you set up your rod and take your first cast.
The water looks perfect and the placement of your fly couldn’t be better. But cast after cast, nothing happens. Although the seam you’re in looks as fishy as a seam could be, after multiple float-throughs with various flies, still nothing happens. Reluctantly you move on, knowing without doubt, there had to be at least a few fish holding there, but you just couldn’t make them move.
Most of us have had a day like this. Some of us have many, many days like this when we put in the time and effort but just don’t catch fish. It’s worse when you have a day like this alongside a buddy who’s experiencing just the opposite. They’re getting hits almost every cast. What exactly is the deal and what are the tips, to deal with it.
- Approach the river’s edge slowly and cautiously. Often fish are holding right by the bank. Don’t spook or blow them up before you’ve even wet a line.
- Be mindful of your shadow, particularly in skinny and/or clear water. Just raising your arm in preparation to cast can spook a trout if your shadow passes over or near them.
- Initial fly placement can make a difference. If it’s too close, they often won’t hit. Cast above the fish and float or swing to them.
- Fly landing – is your fly whacking the water or landing softly and realistically (another reason to consider fly placement)?
- Size often does matter. While a huge fly can sometimes be irresistible to an actively feeding fish, most often smaller is more productive. The pattern is often just fine; it’s the size that may be off.
- Nymphing or throwing a dry dropper setup? Make sure you’re reaching the fish. Particularly in fast water, fish, often big fish, will hold tight to the bottom of a river or hole since it takes less energy and effort to hold there. They might move for something completely irresistible and full of dense calories, but generally they’d rather let food come to them. It’s the calorie-intake to calories-spent ratio and big, smart fish have figured in out. If you’re going down, make sure you’re deep enough.
- While we’re talking about droppers, is your fly heavy enough? You might be trailing your fly at the end of 4ft to 6ft of tippet but if your fly is light, the current will lift it up much higher in the water column and it will never reach those fish on the bottom. You think you are since you’re using a long bit of tippet, but the fly isn’t heavy enough to counteract the rising effect of the stronger current. Think beadhead and tungsten.
- Use that tenkara rod! One of the biggest benefits of a tenkara rod is its sensitivity. Slight taps on the rod with your finger will create lifelike micromovements in your fly or flies. It doesn’t take much to bring a pattern to life with this technique and really is what tenkara is all about. Nymphs and pupa move and twitch in the water as they break free and rise to the surface. Dry flies do the same as they lay their eggs on top of the water or try to break free from surface tension holding on to them. Remember, when studies are done, dead insects represent only a negligible, transient fraction of in-stream insect samples. Bottom line, about 100% of insect life in a typical healthy stream or river is ALIVE. Make sure your fly pattern represents this.
- One final thought. There is a big difference between not getting hits and missing hits. The above suggestions are when you are not getting hits. If you are missing hits that’s a different story and has more to do with tactical feedback and your faster-action, motor response – or fast twitch muscles. This is something that develops with time and practice but other things that help reduce missed hook sets are:
- reducing or eliminating any slack in your line
- maintaining tension on the fish throughout the fight
If you’re hooking, but fish are throwing the hook:
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- make sure to keep the fish’s head in an upward position throughout
- try steering the fish into calmer water
- shortening and/or tightening your setup by using a shorter line and/or shorter tippet/leader material keeps everything snug and minimizes the chance for slack and lost tension.
- And, if the fish runs towards you creating slack and loss of tension, raising your rod to pick up the extra line and if possible, moving backwards from the fish will help you regain line tension and pressure on the fish.
Of course, these are only a few suggestions and tips to keep in mind when you’re spending a lot of time fishing but doing very little catching. There can literally be a plethora of other variables and conditions that impact whether or not your day on the water was productive: weather, water temperature, time of day, season, water flows, …angler skill set, etc., all impact fish feeding behavior and catch rate. Certainly, there are times and moments when a fish just doesn’t feel the urge to eat. Maybe it’s already munched a bunch. We will never completely know. But the next time you go fishing and feel like the entire river is fasting, or you just can’t stay connected, try some of the above tactics to make sure you’re doing what you can to entice at least a few finicky fish to EAT.
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Hi Karin
I fished my favourite tail race river today for zero result .
No bites nothing did even sight a fish was using my Sagi rod rod with all purpose line.
A friend of mine who lives locally says that during march /April period the trout seemed to vanish am thinking it could be something to do with low oxygen levels.The river is the Goulburn Victoria Australia.
Cheers Kevin
Interesting. I’m sure it has something to do with water flows/oxygen levels, as you mentions as well as water temps and food resources. Fish go where they have food and are comfortable, right. It would be interesting to look at water flows during those months and compare it to when they are present.