Fish Where the Fish Are! - by Jay Forrest

Having Charlie Cypert talk to the club last month served as a pointed reminder of how we tend to get in a rut, become a creature of habit, and ignore reality when we go fishing – we all too often fish the top two feet of water when the fish are on bottom! My own record of fishing for white bass stands as a monument for not fishing where the fish were!

Over the past five years I have fished for white bass three times and caught four or five fish over fifteen hours or so of fishing – not particularly good considering that minnow fishermen were catching fish every five to ten minutes. So I know the fish were there and I knew they would be deep, but I was clearly doing something wrong. My most recent effort deserves analysis and sharing.

Like so many fly fishermen, I prefer using a floating line. Knowing the water was only three to four feet deep, I figured I could get the fly down by using a heavy clouser, a long leader, and potentially stacking the cast a bit to create slack leader and casting upstream to let the fly sink before I began my retrieve. Thinking back, that part worked – I could tell I was getting the fly to the bottom and I was hanging up occasionally on rocks – as the fly dead drifted downstream. Once the fly line tightened and the retrieve began I was not hanging up – clearly the fly was rising from bottom.

I wasn’t catching fish in the first part of the cast when the fly was on bottom, nor was I catching fish on the last part of the cast when I was retrieving. When my fly was on bottom I was not in good contact with the fly and either the fish weren’t hitting the fly or, if they were, I couldn’t feel them. During the retrieve portion of the cast I must presume the fly rose out of the strike zone.

As an experienced fly fisherman I sensed as much – and went to very heavy clousers. They were likely too big – scaring the fish to some extent, but they did snag bottom more – and I did catch a few fish before I lost the last one on a rock. But it was still clear I was not keeping the fly on bottom even though I was using very heavy flies.

Looking back I should have switched to a sinking line, but that would have meant a quarter mile walk to the car and back, and I kept rationalizing that I couldn’t do much better than I was – the flies had to be the problem! (Ha!)

As I listened to Charlie talk about how to catch white bass that experience flashed through my mind and the message was seared into my brain! I had been fishing where the fish weren’t. If I got down another foot or so I would catch fish

and I would need a full sink line just like Charlie suggested. Charlie verified what I had known down deep but refused to admit (so I could continue to use a floating line). With my new full sink line I will be ready for February!

One final kicker deserves comment. After the meeting I asked Bruce Young if he would like to talk about fishing for pan fish in the spring. Bruce said, “Yes, but I don’t have the pictures.” When I asked what kind of pictures, Bruce said, “Pictures showing where to fish. Most of the time when I watch beginners they are spending most of their time fishing where there are no fish!”

Given that I had just admitted to myself that I had been fishing above the fish, Bruce’s comment really struck home. Put the fly where the fish are and you will catch more fish!