Tip of the Day

Why do steelhead take a fly?  Becasue they are looking for food - Maybe?  Because they have instincts from their juvenile self from 2 years previously - Likely?  Because they are aggressive fish and just get pissed that there is this little nagging thing in front of them - Oh Yeah...... All of these scenarios are likely correct at some...

When I started out swinging flies with a spey rod, my cast wasn’t great.  In fact, it pretty much sucked.  But, because mending the line with the spey is pretty easy (think length), I was able to turn a bad cast into a great cast. After I piled my crappy cast out there, I only needed to pick up and turn over...

Do you sharpen your hook on a regular basis?   A fish's mouth is hard and tough.  Although steelhead often hit like a freight train, they can also take super subtly.  Just as light as a tip-tap is sometimes all you feel.  Take a look at Tip #1 here for clarification. A sharp hook can mean the difference between just getting...

One nice tip to save you the potential pain of breaking your spey rod, is using electrical tape around the ferrules.  Pretty simple way to assure your sections don't separate.  Why tape? As opposed to single handed rod casting, which is a pretty straight back and forth type of motion, with spey casting, there' a lot of side to side...

Todays Tip of the Day comes from Jack Mitchell who made a great point when he discussed a great way to find steelhead holding water by focusing your time on the Heads and Tails of runs in certain situations. Click here and listen in around the 12 minutes mark when Jack describes this tip. In certain situations when you have a...

  The power of the take of a steelhead is, well...... Powerful.  It can really blow you away if you aren't ready.  Hell, it can really blow you away if you are ready.  I've talked about a few techniques already that will help you hook and land more fish -  see the Open Clinch Knot and Bow to the fish. The...

It sometimes sounds like a good idea to get out in your boat and cover as much water as possible.  But Trey Combs noted in a recent interview I did with him that one of his biggest tips is to get to know one steelhead run so well that you can identify each pebble. So you can identify each boulder...

  Have you ever thought about what your fly looks like to a fish under water? Yeah, I know…. we all have. But, have you figured out how to control the fly so it is displayed in the best position possible to entice a fish to strike? Do you know what the best presentation is for fish?  Hint: Allowing the fish...

Have you ever been on the river when one person was hammering the fish and all others were picking their nose?  The dude seemed to hook up 3 or 4 times for every touch you had.  Probably wondering what fly pattern he was using, right? Sometimes in fly fishing, bigger isn't always better.  In fact I've found that the smaller...

  There's no question, one of the best, and easiest, tips I could ever give you for hooking steelhead is called the Hang Down.  This is how it works - After you cast and swing your fly through the run, your fly will be "hanging down" below you.  Make sure to let the fly sit there for 3 or 5...