1. Keep a record of the fish you catch and include the date, location, fly weather conditions. Its all good information for future fishing outings and new fishing places. Also include a comment column where you can identify things that worked or didn't work as the case may be. eg stripping speed, depths fished, line type, fishing method etc etc.

2. Its not just pricking fish that is important its landing them.

   • practice you landing net technique

   • try flip striking, strip striking or striking sideways particularly on small fish and fish that take the fly early in the retrieve

   • fight the fish to the side. Particularly with small fish and rainbows fight them to the side so they don't come out of the water.

3. Make contact with your flies as soon as they hit the water and maintain contact with your fly or team of flies at all times. Slackness in leaders will give fish time to spit the fly without you even being aware they have mouthed it.

4. Think and dress like a hunter.

   • Camo clothes

   • Remove flashy watches, other jewellery, line clippers, haemostats etc.

   • Move slowly taking advantage of cover

   • Keep in the shadows if possible

   • Don't cast a shadow with your body, rod or line on the water to be fished

   • If you can see the fish it may be able to see you - wait for it to turn away

   • Be quiet

   • Don't wave your rod around

   • Limit false casts and don't slap the line and flies on the water unless you mean to.

5. If you are thinking about changing technique or fly do it straight away.

6. If other people are catching fish and your not make a change.

7. If your plan is not working think about what you and others are doing and make any appropriate changes.

8. Limit false casts - its all air and no hook ups. The more false casts the greater the chance something will go wrong.

9. Flies:

   • One of the things I try to promote is the importance of limiting most if not all of your fly box to just those flies that you are confident work for you, you understand what they can be used to represent, and you know how to fish.

   • flies catch more fishermen than fish

   • Don't add a fly to your fly box just because you like the look of it. Think about its "FORM & FUNCTION".

   • Its important to "LOOK AT A FLY & HOW YOU FISH IT FROM THE FISHES PERSPECTIVE".

   • Have flies in different weights. Its important to fish the depth where the fish are.

   • Carry a black, dark olive and red permanent markers. You can change the colour of flies and bead heads if necessary.

10. Carry and use a range of fly lines and poly leaders so that you can find the depth that fish are holding / feeding at.

11. If your fishing in a competition know the rules and stick to them.

12. Keep your hands clean so that you don't transfer fuel, sun screen and other odors to your flies, line and other gear. A good trick is to wash your hands with unscented soap and then to wash tem a second time using a hand full of local mud or sand instead of soap.

13. Be careful not to put any of your gear where it may pick up an undesirable scent.  A big trap is if your sitting in the rear of a boat to strip into the back where the bilge water may sit or where fuel may have been spilled.

RIVER TECHNIQUES

• Fishing up stream - leader generally less than rod length and one or two flies.

• Across and down - can fish longer leaders but generally no longer  than 1/3 the width of the water.

• Czech Nymphing - minimum line outside the rod tip and minimum length of leader to accommodate the fly or flies and fish the full depth.

• French style - only a meter or so of fly line outside the rod tip and the lightest and longest leader you can present and land fish on.

• Dry fly - leader generally less than rod length to the top fly and then only one or two flies.

• Nymph under dry - leader generally less than rod length to the dry and nymph 1.5 to 2 times the depth of the water below.

• Sink tips and sinking lines - leader generally less than 2/3 the rod length to top fly and then one or two flies beyond that.

RIVER TIPS

1. If fish that are not on the surface make sure that your anchor fly is bouncing along the river bed.

2. If your fishing nymphs use a line with a built in indicator rather than wasting one of your flies as an indicator. Alternatively use a length of coloured monofilament as the butt end of your leader.

3. Unless fishing "French style" or "across and down" keep your leaders shorter than the length of the rod.

4. If fishing "French style". Fish only the first meter of fly line out of the rod tip and drop the thickness of the 20 foot or so leader down to the minimum size that will play the subject fish.

5. If fishing across and down leaders can be as long the lesser of what's comfortable to cast / roll cast and 1/3 the width of the water.

6. If fishing across and down try wee wets and small soft hackle flies as well as nymphs and streamers.

7. Try different lines and sink tips. Even in relatively shallow water you have be down in the strike zone.

8. Stealth and cunning are essential in river fishing. The closer you are to fish the more stealth and cunning required.

9. Fish dry flies first and then fish the same water with a nymph under dry, then deep nymphs and then streamers on sinking lines.

10. Fish dry flies over heavily weeded sections of river.

11. If fishing a nymph under a dry have leaders of different lengths (e.g. 500mm 800mm and 1.2m) set up with the nymphs on the end and ready to go. Keep them wrapped around a piece of foam in a plastic bag in your fly vest vest. Swap leaders around as you move through different water depths and water flows in the stream. Typically the dropper below a dry fly needs to be 1.5 to twice the depth of the water depending on the water flow.

12. In competitions always fish the best water first. Then give it a rest and if it warrants further attention fish it last.

13. Start by fishing short and try to always have the same length cast so that as you step forward you are fishing new water.

14. Try as much as possible to fish at an angle rather than straight up or straight down.

15. If fishing deep try leading the flies just slightly faster than the drift to ensure contact with the flies and any takes.

16. If fishing back waters (also known as black holes) strip strike on intuition.

17. Think left handed - fish the side of the river that doesn't get attention from most right handed anglers.

18. Fish along banks drop offs as well as obvious structure.

19. In hot weather remember to fish the shadows. In cold weather remember to fish the sunny side.

20. The first cast has the best chance of getting a fish. Make sure your in the best position to make it.

21. Strike at any movement of the line or indicator and If your sixth sense tells you to strike then strike.

LOCH STYLE TIPS

1. My optimal leader set up is set out below:
    

   LEADER & TIPPET 4.3 METER LONG OVERALL - DROPPERS 25CM

   "OPEN LOOP" TO FLY LINE THEN 4 FOOT (1.2 METER) BUTT SECTION OF 12LB TO 15LB MAXIMA ULTRAGREEN MONOFILAMENT	11 FEET (3.3 METERS) OF 7LB RIO FLUROFLEX PLUS OR 4-TO 6LB MAXIMA ULTRAGREEN
   	FIRST DROPPER 300MM  DOWN FROM THE BUTT	SECOND DROPPER HALF  WAY TO THE POINT	POINT

    

   Vary your leader set up to suit how you:

   • net fish ( I have a small loop to "open loop" set up which will go through the top runner cleanly in either direction)

   • changing lines (my leader set up allows me to change lines quickly).

   • changing leaders (my "open loop" to lop set-up allows me to change leaders quickly)

   • keeping in contact with flies

   • casting style

    

2. I have a number of leaders set up with teams of flies already tied on. Each one can be wrapped around a piece of soft foam and is stored individually in a clip lock bag.

3. Cast wider loops when loch style fishing - this is sometimes known as Belgium casting.

4. Only cast a comfortable distance for the prevailing weather conditions, your casting style and the rod, line, leader and flies set up.

5. Check for hang up of flies, weed or other matter fouling lines or flies, wind knots and tangles on a regular basis.

6. Fish the drop, retrieve, lift, hang and dibble.

7. Experiment with different retrieves.

8. Once you have the formulae right don't change until the formula stops working.

9. Watch what other fly fisheries are doing. Take note of fly selection, leader set up, retrieve, type of retrieve etc. If what they are doing is not working for them then don't emulate them. Copy them if what they are doing is working.

10. Use the rules. e.g. If measuring a fish for another fly fisher look carefully at their flies, leader set up, line type etc.

11. Fish the full range of depths until you determine which depth works.

12. Fish to structure and to the wind ward shore unless there is visible movement of fish or some reason to think that fish are holding in a particular location.

13. Waterfowl are good indicators of the presence of things fish eat or fish themselves.

     

Ste