Tactics & Techniques

  The fishing was slow and trout were skittish. I’d caught two rainbows but missed a handful of others, mainly because the bite was so subtle that they shook off before I even realized they were on the hook. I took a break to ponder the situation and noticed a plastic package half-covered with fallen […]

Most anglers can identify the prime holding water along any stretch of stream. Small streams are particularly easy to read since you can usually see whatever structure is present, and if you know how fish like to station around that structure, all you have to do is figure out where to cast in order to

  Think of fly fishing and most anglers envision casting to rising trout or drifting egg patterns to finicky Steelhead. While I enjoy those moments, too, once summer rolls around, I have a different species that I love to target: the mighty Bluegill. Like many anglers, the first fish that ever tugged my line was

  The right fly can produce a banner day. The wrong fly can leave you fishless and frustrated. A few years ago, I was having a rough outing on Buffalo Creek Delayed Harvest in Butler County. Buffalo Creek is a mid-sized stream with a strong early spring flow. The stream had just been stocked two

  Hopper fishing defies the most basic rules of fly casting. No need for those elegant, wistful casts, and nobody cares about the perfect, drag-free drift. These are big, gaudy patterns meant for chucking and ducking rather than soft presentations that flutter to the surface, but they catch trout, and sometimes lots of them. Grasshoppers,

  Bass thrive almost everywhere in the United States. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re fortunate to have generous populations of both largemouth and smallmouth in our lakes and rivers. No matter where bass are found, though, they all have one thing in common – they all like poppers. Types of Poppers and Color Selection Poppers come

Earlier this spring, I purchased several brands of fly floatant to use in an experiment to see which ones worked best is specific situations. Keep in mind, this isn’t the same as testing how long each product keeps a fly afloat in a scientific setting. There was nothing scientific about my testing process. Rather, I

  Water levels have been so low the past year that I almost forgot how good Buffalo Creek can look with a little meat on its bones. The recent hard rain had done it good, and although it still wasn’t particularly high, it was at least at normal flows. I stripped out some line and

  Emergers and cripple flies are terms used to describe several types of fly patterns that aren’t meant to ride hide on the water’s surface like traditional, catskill-style dry fly patterns. Rather, they float along in the film where they appear helpless, making them an easy target for feeding trout. During every fly hatch, a

  Drag kills. Drag can ruin a perfectly fine presentation and mean the difference between a catch and a refusal. The worst part of it is that sometimes you don’t even realize it’s happening. We’ve all been there. We know what’s hatching, we know what the trout are keying on, and we even have the