In the heat of summer, when mountain streams often are low and clear, trout are less active and spookier than usual.Catching them requires finesse and patience, so adapt to your surroundings, and you’ll catch trout no matter the conditions.
Wear clothing in neutral colors, such as brown or green, that blend with the surroundings; don’t wear anything white or bright. Fish upstream so trout are less likely to see you coming. Use long leaders (9-feet minimum) and cast from behind rocks or other natural obstructions.
If you see fish darting when you move in the water, forget about that particular stretch. No amount of coaxing will result in a strike. Learn your lesson and move on to the next stretch.
Cast close to banks, underneath low-hanging mountain laurel and rhododendron bushes. You’ll lose a few flies and spend a lot of precious fishing time getting line and flies out of bushes, but that’s part of the experience.
During hot weather, trout stay in cooler areas of a stream where oxygen content is higher, places that have bubbly, white water, especially little pools below ledges and small waterfalls. Let your fly drop naturally into this frothy water or let it drift through riffles. Look for small tributaries that feed cooler water into a main stream.
Think like a trout and fish areas you’d prefer to be at during the heat of the day.
Fish small streams. The ones with the most cover have the coolest water.
Small high-elevation streams with a heavy canopy have a constant temperature and can be fished all day. Save the large, open streams for early morning and late evening fishing.
Dry flies
Trout feed during the comfortable times of the day — early morning before the water heats up and late evening after the water cools down.
For dry-fly fishing, these are the most productive times, but sporadic hatches occur all during the day, only in fewer numbers.
For morning dry-fly fishing, Blue-Winged Olive, female or male Adams (winged or parachute), Light Cahill, yellow or green Palmer, Tennessee Wulff and parachute Pheasant Tail are good patterns. Usually a No. 16 or 14 works well.
For late evening, midges are especially effective in gray, creme, brown, or black. Sizes 18 to 22 work best. Some dry fly patterns, particularly a Cahill or Adams, can be fished all day.
Experiment until you get a strike and stick with that pattern.
Nymphs
Nymph patterns can be fished all day, but they require more skill and patience than dry flies.
Strikes can be subtle and difficult to detect unless you’ve done a lot of nymph fishing. Sometimes a strike will be little more than a slight hesitation of the leader.
If your nymph fishing is limited, use a strike indicator and attach it to the leader 2 to 3 feet above the fly. A piece of brightly-colored yarn or patch of cotton attached to the leader works just as well as a commercial strike indicator.
Watch the indicator as it floats; if it hesitates or moves to one side or the other, raise the tip of your rod; you’ve likely had a strike.
Suggested nymph patterns are Secret Weapon, Sheep Fly, Pheasant Tail (nymph or emerger), yellow Tellico, Yellowhammer, Yellow Stone and Stone Fly.
Dry flies also make excellent strike indicators, and they give you an extra edge in the water. Sometimes, a trout will hit the dry fly instead of the nymph.
When using a dry fly as a strike indicator, use a section of leader and tie the nymph onto the shank of the main hook and use the nymph as a dropper. If the stream is shallow, the dropper should hang about 6 inches below the dry fly, 12 inches for deeper water.
The nymph should be small enough that it doesn’t drag the dry fly down. If you’re using a No. 14 or 16 nymph, for example, use a No. 12 or larger dry fly.
During late summer, a yellow Stimulator or other attractor pattern makes an excellent strike indicator.
Terrestrials
The ubiquitous bugs of summer (ants, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, inchworms, bees) provide a constant and substantial food source for trout.
Terrestrials can be fished until the first frost and can be fished wet or dry. Terrestrials usually drop or land in the water with a slight plop, so presentation isn’t a critical factor.
However, they should be fished close to banks, near bushes — anywhere where grass grows at a stream bank. Fish sizes closest to the natural creatures your fly imitates — a No. 12 up to a No. 10 or 8.
To get terrestrials such as an inchworm down deep, use a beadhead or tie on extra weight to the leader just above the fly.
Streamers
Thunderstorms are a natural part of summer in the mountains. Usually, though, they come in fast and end quickly.
If you hear thunder, move off the stream. Water is no place to be when lightning is flashing. Also, water levels can rise to dangerous levels quickly.
After a storm has passed, water may be slightly dingy for a short time, especially at high-gradient streams. But post-storm periods are ideal times to switch to streamers such as Woolly Boogers, Muddler Minnow, Dace, and other patterns that imitate swimming aquatic life.
Streamers also work well at deep pools, places where big brown trout are more likely to be. Pull them through the water in short spurts or let them drift in a current.
Strikes are less frequent on streamers, but when you get a strike, it’s usually a big fish.
Spinning lures
Rooster Tail, Mepps, Panther Martin, Joe’s Flies all work well.
Use smaller lures (1/16 to 1/8 ounce) at small streams, 1/4 ounce for larger streams.
An effective way to work a spinner is to stand in the middle of a stream and cast in quarter sections, covering as much water as possible. Let the lure sink, then began a slow, steady retrieve. Alternating between a slow and fast retrieve often causes a trout to strike.
Treble-hook lures are legal only at hatchery-supported waters. For wild trout streams, make certain the lure has a single hook.
Bait fishing
For small streams, redworms or baby nightcrawlers work much better than regular nightcrawlers.
Crickets, grasshoppers, June bugs, inchworms and beetles also are common summer fare for trout. If you can find wasp nests, their larvae make excellent bait.
When fishing with live bait, pinch on just enough lead weight to allow a decent cast and let the bait drift naturally through riffles or bumpy water. Retrieve worms with a slow stop-and-go action. Let bugs and hoppers float naturally until they begin dragging, then cast again.
Make certain live bait can be used in the stream you plan to fish. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and at wild-trout streams in the national forests, live bait isn’t permitted.
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