If you guys found the bite off a bit this past April, May and June, it probably had very little to do with what you were doing, more with what Mother Nature's weather patterns were doing.

I can't remember a past year when I experienced such a continuous mix of weather fronts.

If you have my new book, Stillwater Presentation, the first few chapters covered this very point on how weather patterns impact a trout's feeding behavior, locations where they go along with the depths they hold at.
On this trip I witnessed first hand how trout were moved into non-feeding depths where the best presentation had little or no impact on their willingness to eat.

In spite of a constant greeting each morning of dark, threating clouds, wind, cold, and a mix of rain, hail or snow which came and left, there was an occasional bite, but you needed patience and lots of it.

Fishing Henry's Lake in Idaho, Hebgen in Montana, Monster Lake and Piedmont Reservoir in Wyoming to name a few, I landed some trophy rainbow, brown and cutthroat, a few nice brook trout and rainbow/cutthroat hybrids, but there were no days that produced numbers of fish that these lakes usually produce for this time of year.

Depending how you look at it, there was a narrow window on Monster Lake where I lost two browns three casts apart, one in the 8-9 pound range, the other a monster that I guessed to be around 13-15 pounds that went airborne 15 feet in front of me twice. I'm not kidding, he was huge, at least 32-34 inches long and a girth that mimicked a king salmon.

How and why did I lose both when neither broke off from my 2X fluorocarbon tippet, each straightened the hook. I messed up and didn't give line quick enough when they bolted away from me, not left and right as fish often do. You don't yield line on turns to the left or right, but you get tested quickly when they take off away from you. You would think I would have learned after the first one straightened me. I'll be ready next time, I hope.

Now that we are into the heat of summer, it's a far different game now. Trout are showing the same symptoms, but for different reasons. In the mixing weather patterns of spring, it was low pressure that moved trout into the depths and off the bite. They almost always say no to the pressure of hunger or the need to feed when weather puts them deep. If that were not true, you would find them close to the surface or in the shallow shoreline area where food is concentrated.

When heat or warmer surface temperatures move trout deep, they can still be caught, but you need to work for them. It's not about pattern most of the time, but presentation of the fly.

Thanks to all of you who purchased my new book. Sales have been brisk with lots of positive feedback. I tried to provide you with everything I've learned on the water relative to stillwater presentation and how best to go about it. It's not everything, but there is a lot of information in there for you.

Some of you may have noticed the price of Cortland's clear Camo intermediate line has gone up from $58.00 to $64.00. Cost of doing business is my guess and its not going down, ever.

With the heat of summer moving trout into the depths, I'm testing a new line for me that will reach them quicker and still move the fly up at an emerging angle. I'll keep you informed this fall after testing it on a variety of lakes with a variety of patterns.

I'm still trying to figure out why trout will take our impression of their food and ignore all the naturals we are trying to imitate. I know they don't see our fly as a match to what they see and eat every day. Yet, they will and do react to it. Here's an example.

While fishing the Wood River near my home in June, an explosive hatch of little size 14-16 mayflies were drifting down the river in impressive numbers. Brown trout ranging from 15-23 inches were surfacing in pods, then there would be no activity, then another group holding ahead 10-15 feet or so. Finding feeding fish was never a problem. There were so many naturals floating by that the trout rose systematically every 10-12 seconds or so. They would softly rise to the natural and just suck it in. I placed my fly [I used four different imitations] in the trout's feeding lane or tried to, and when the fly approached the waiting fish, there would be an explosive take and I was fast to a decent trout of l8-20 inches most of the morning. In three hours of matching wits with these selective fish which they are most of the time, I landed l6, missed 3 or 4 others with two breakoffs on my 6X fluorocarbon tippet.

What was different is the manner in which the take occurred. Why an explosive reaction when they just rose softly to the naturals? My different patterns matched the naturals in size and shape, not necessarily in color but close. Why would they pass on a natural that they had been eating all morning to take something that didn't match up exactly? Don't think this isn't what we face on stillwater as well because it is. Makes you wonder, doesn't it.

I would say this happens on most casts when I fish lakes. The main difference between a dry and a fly fished below regardless of whether it's a suggestive or impressionistic pattern is the manner in which the trout sees it and how he takes it.

If they see it as food, they never and I mean never miss. However, if they are curious and react to it, then you get hits, hookups and lots of missed strikes.
I still don't know why they pass on the natural and take our impressions of their food and I'll probably pass through this lifetime and will never know. That's why I'll get up again tomorrow and go fishing.

What's On Sale

For the month of August only, Fly Fishing the West's Best Trout Lakes and Tying Stillwater Patterns for Trophy Trout will go on sale for $15.95 each or get them both for $25.95. That's a savings of $19.00 per book or $43.95 for both. Everything else on sale now will remain so through the end of the year.

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