Jungle Flyfishing and the Quest for Sanity

Be prepared to cast creatively and get a few bumps and scratches in your quest for the perfect jungle spot

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Here are some useful tips on finding some jungle spots:

Look for locations on the stream that seem unreachable—they're not, you just have to work a little harder to get there.

The one thing they all these spots have in common is seemingly impossible access and fishability. Upon careful observation, you will find that many of these spots are reachable if you are creative and willing to be a little bit adventurous. If I don't return home with a few scrapes, I don't feel as if I really did the "jungle thing."

Jungle flyfishing may include fishing barely detectable pockets of slower water along the edges of streams, or in slicks located in fast, choppy water that most anglers would overlook. Trout are very instinctual and have a feel for locations where they are protected. These are the areas you need to look for.

Think outside the box and the reward-to-risk factor will increase.

Jungle flyfishing means fishing portions of rivers and streams that are so choked up with vegetation that they are completely ignored by other anglers. If you can make your way to the water, you can then cast directly upstream or downstream without interference from behind. With a little ingenuity, there are a lot of little tricks that will have you hooking trout in places you never considered before.

Again, the rewards of this type of angling usually outweigh the potential risks. The trout you find in these areas rarely see other anglers, so your presentation and choice of flies is not nearly as critical as in areas of heavy access. These trout are usually eager and willing to take even the sloppiest of your home-tied flies. They are also wilder and will be much fiercer battlers than their more urbanized cousins.

Your Orvis cast won't always work—be prepared to cast creatively.

Although these trout are easier to catch, getting your fly to the right spot in some of these bizarre locations will require some specific techniques. I consider roll-casting first, because anglers will typically be casting from tight quarters, often with no room to back-cast. Dapping or dabbing, which is the art of putting your fly on the water without casting but by manipulating your rod tip, is critical in this type of fishing because of the nature of your locations.