A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FISHING

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Streams and Fast Rivers

All sorts of fish abound in streams and rapidly moving rivers, but when this kind of water comes to mind, we think trout. And, frankly, when trout come to mind, most anglers think fly-fishing, a wonderful and artful sport that's beyond the scope of this basic article. Should your fishing yen move in this direction, there are any number of fine books on the subject. (An article on beginning flyfishing will also appear in the third issue of Mom's companion publication, A MERICAN C OUNTRY , which should be on your newsstand by early June.) You can, however, experiment with dry (floating) and wet (sinking) flies with your spinning outfit. To do so, just buy a "casting bubble," which is a clear bobber that provides the mass necessary to flip a nearly weightless fly on spinning tackle, then fish the water as you would with live bait, a technique that is within the scope of this piece.

KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

When trout are the quarry, the worm is the most commonly used live bait. In fact, a great many trout are caught by still-fishing—either on the bottom or with a bobber, in the deep, slow-moving pools of streams and rivers. Night crawlers are the common still-fishing bait, but—for my money—a healthy gardendug red worm will outperform a crawler in still-fishing, and is almost a must if you want to "work" a stream like a fly-fisherman.

For this technique, a proven fish catcher as well as a wonderful excuse to explore the tumbling, shade- and sunlight-dappled staircases of a mountain stream, you'll need your smallest hooks, a few tiny split-shot sinkers and a leader. Simply a length of line of different strength from what's on the reel's spool, a leader—for our purposes here—consists of a four- to six-foot section of two- to fourpound test line that will be less visible to trout in gin-clear water than the "working" line on the reel. Tie this leader on, then, with the small hook and a worm in place (hook the worm only through the head, so most of its length dangles freely), experiment with different weights of split shot by dropping the worm, with the weight fixed six inches above it, into the current in front of you. Your aim is to pick a weight that will allow the worm to sink against the current at about a 45 ° angle, then let it roll along the bottom naturally.

Once your rig is correct, proceed upstream, walking in the water (blue jeans and sneakers should sufce in all but the coldest streams), flipping the bait ahead of you, usually at an angle toward the bank, in such a way that it will drift beneath undercut banks, into the whirlpool washes formed by boulders, under tree limbs projecting into the stream and—in general—anyplace the combination of current-supplied food and slower-than-normal water presents a logical resting place for a hungry trout. This will all take practice, of course. Keep in mind that the water around you is clear, and that trout are flighty. Move slowly. Wait a minute or more after getting into position before flipping your bait to a promising spot, and—as when fishing lakes with plastic worms—consider any unnatural hesitation in the drift of your bait to be a striking fish.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print