In many cases you can shift your position sufficiently to achieve maximal viewing and casting potentials. At other times you just have to put up with glare and look all the harder. Since I use boats for most of my fishing, my position can be changed at whim by focusing on either side of the river. Big-river wade fishermen will have fewer options, but there are still ways to combat glare.The most common glare situation is when you're fishing from the bank and look out across a broad river that reflects nothing but big western sky. The river is a sheet of glare, especially on gray or windy days, presenting acres of tough spotting water. Any time fishermen can position themselves to have a bank, hill, or forest as a backdrop, sky glare will be significantly reduced and spotting will improve. There are many cases on flats and shallow riffle areas where an angler can wade out into the river and look back to his own shore while targeting risers. He must wade very slowly and cautiously, of course, for trout can easily be scared by the waves you emit and the sound of gravel crunching under your feet. But the advantage gained in seeing both fish and fly can be worth the effort.
If one is on a big and straight stretch of river in a bad glare situation, he can move up into an island system, when one is available, where lighting backdrops are more adjustable. The holding water, too, is more intimate and varied. If you are starting at a bridge access, something as simple as choosing the side of the river that will give the best lighting situations will go a long way toward increasing your fish-spotting potential. If you are fishing in the evening, fish the side that allows you to look east rather than west, at the setting sun. Trout have a harder time seeing stalking anglers when they are staring into the bright sunshine at your back. All of this is of real importance to the small-fly hatch-matching trout hunter. Seeing is everything here, and fishing blind a decided second choice.
There is another angle of this lighting situation that deserves consideration, and that is the color of your fly pattern, and especially the wings. For example, I tie Parachute Adamses and thorax patterns with four general wing-color variations to meet different lighting requirements. I find this very important to do, particularly on wide-open tailwater rivers.
The first wing variation is with true match-the-hatch colored wings for picky fish in ideal lighting and viewing scenarios. The rest of the fly's color in all these cases is otherwise unchanged. The second variation is with the standard white Parachute Adams wing. This gives excellent spotting visibility in most, but not all, cases. The third choice is a Hi-Vis, or high visibility, wing. I find fluorescent chartreuse to be more visible than orange or red in a variety of lighting situations. This can be helpful for those with poor eyesight, which in my guiding experience includes about half the human race under forty, and 75 percent of it beyond that age.
Now for the fourth variation I find particularly helpful, especially on the broad tailwaters where I spend much of my time. Here sky glare reigns as the dominant background. There are many situations when this is hard to eliminate. Gray, breezy days are the worst, and this is where black wings can be so helpful. In many glare conditions match-the-hatch, white, and even Hi-Vis wings can be hard to see. Black can stand out as a bold silhouette in the right lighting conditions to both the angler and trout. Nowhere is this more important than when sky glare, gray days, and evening light fuddle your vision. Black stands out like the proverbial sore thumb, and the trout seem to like it. It is often alleged that the wing of a mayfly is what the trout keys in on, for it appears first in his limited field of vision, and black is very visible when viewed against the sky. I seem to use these most in spring and fall, when dark-winged Baetis are on the water and light levels are low. Baetis have medium-gray wings, but the trout focus well on the black ones, which are surely quite visible from below. Indeed, trout like black, for there are few things to be found in most streams that are black and not food items. Think about it—beetles, ants, crickets, black caddis, stonefly nymphs, and even some mayfly nymphs are black or very close to it. All are relished by trout. Black beetle and ant patterns have long been considered premium midday searching patterns. Little black crickets are great, too. Yes, black is good.
Not only do black wings show up extremely well on gray-sky-glare water, but also when evening light washes the river in subtle pastels, when nighthawks swoop, bats whirl, and the noses of trout appear as stark silhouettes. Here, too, black wings show up as beacons to fish and fisherman alike. I always have some on hand for just these everyday occasions on-stream.
The situations in which black doesn't show up well are when dark backgrounds like hills and trees are the dominant lighting backdrop. This is generally the case when one is float fishing and casting in toward the shore, or when on smaller waters where the sky is rarely reflected, particularly if the hillsides are steep. I don't use black wings all the time, just when the lighting conditions necessitate them. I find myself changing patterns through the day not only to meet hatches but also to battle lighting conditions and achieve fly-to-background contrast. At times this is quite often, for seeing your fly and the fish is a very important aspect of small-fly fishing.
Wind is another normality on western rivers. Learning to deal with it is a must. You not only must learn to cast in the wind but also learn firsthand how wind affects trout behavior. Most trout don't like rising in the wind, though they make exceptions for certain food items. There are hatches that are nullified by wind, and others that come off just the same, with the trout still taking them.
Perhaps the most noticeable food item taken in the wind—at least in the public eye—are hoppers. These are blown in and at times taken with relish. Small terrestrials are blown in, too, and most likely in greater numbers. Because of their small size, they are often overlooked by anglers, though not by trout. And trout can get jaded by being bombed with a parade of hopper patterns. This is another case where heavily fished trout often respond better to smaller fly patterns. Finding a wind-free slick along a grass-clad bank will often be identification enough as the likely location of beetle-eating, between-hatch trout.
When all the elements are in place and those special fishing situations arise, one can expect the most sublime rising-fish moments in all of trout fishing.
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There are hatches that don't seem to mind wind. Baetis and PMDs are notable examples here. Although many trout may turn their attentions from duns to emergers, there are still fish found taking winged adults—wind or no wind. Mayfly duns in these cases tend to blow and sail across the surface. A little twitch or even drag doesn't necessarily detract from your offering. But rather than continue to fish wind-chop reaches, it will generally be better to find some sheltered area where the duns and rising fish pile up. Trout hate to miss out on prime feeding opportunities, and these can actually be magnified by the wind in the right places. Great successes often occur through the simple maneuver of finding wind-free slicks.My most memorable encounters in this regard seem to center around spring and fall Baetis and midge hatches, and the Trico spinner fall. No weather is too foul for Baetis, and midges, although hatching better when it's calm, will hatch well in the wind and concentrate along lee and sheltered areas. If it's calm when the Trico spinner fall actually takes place and the wind comes up in early afternoon as usual, calm-water pockets of fish can still be found rising to the leftover spentwings. The river can be empty of risers except in these wind-free locales.
Being mobile is the key to dry-fly success here, and even on the worst of days it is possible to find a handful of ideal fishing scenes. Stormy days that chase a good many fishermen off the stream can give brief but glorious moments of heavy hatches, wind lulls, and gung-ho rising fish. The lighting situations between thunderstorms can be inspirational. Rich earthy scents are never sweeter than just after a deluge. The drama of rampaging storms animates river valleys with moments ranging from the exciting and fearful to the sublime. The river can come to life with insects popping, fish rising, and swallows circling, as bursts of cool humid air give relief from summer heat or spring sunlight's brilliance. Wind and storms are to the atmosphere what mountains are to a landscape—something that gives it life, drama, and variation to keep the mind alert. Although many hate casting in the wind, and I certainly hate rowing in it, one cannot ignore the wind or the way it affects the fishing. If it gets too windy to fish, sit back and enjoy its power as it sweeps across those huge western landscapes.
Finding rising fish is a great part of the fun in fishing small flies. It takes concentration, determination, mobility, a good river, and a working knowledge of the hatches for the best results. Good eyesight helps, too. When all the elements are in place and those special fishing situations arise, one can expect the most sublime rising-fish moments in all of trout fishing. It's up to you to have the right equipment, flies, and techniques to dupe them. Ultimate challenges are there, while the trout keep rising.
© Article copyright Pruett Publishing.
