Fly Fishing Trout Stream Fundamentals - Position & Cross River Reach

[@troutman007]

I have been fly fishing for a long time and I hope everyone truly appreciates that unique setup and cast for that situation, brilliant and incredible. First build the right leader then make the hero cast to drop it into the correct seam for it to drift to him on the shallow side, WOW. But you made it look easy, very well done, congratulations on a great hook set!

[@jensenflyfishing]

Those were some pretty great moments in this video for both of us - if you saw the full video! :) Line management during and after the cast is so important :)

[@raymondschoeneman7419]

Thanks!

[@jensenflyfishing]

thank you - so happy to hear this one connected for you. Thank you for your support :)

[@obie_8214]

that's a beautiful river...

[@jensenflyfishing]

It is :) A favorite :)

[@axelg4263]

Beautiful river, this is in patagonia ?

[@jensenflyfishing]

Hi, no it isn't. That's New Zealand :)

[@donit]

👏🏻👏🏻

[@jensenflyfishing]

:)

[@troutman007]

And can I ask, how did you build that leader for casting a nymph vs dry but yet still turnover without a big splash at that distance? Was it ~ 10ft of XXX then attach your normal leader set up or what, as it’s the butt section of this leader that has my attention. And thanks for everything! And no I have never used a 12 ft or longer leader so very curious to this leader set up. Thanks!

[@jensenflyfishing]

Generally we do everything built off a 9' 2X leader to tippet ring, then adjust the lengths of 3, 4 and 5X based on water type, clarity, fish activity, fishing pressure etc. Very seldom do we fish 12 feet, typically 14, often 15 or 16 and Dave goes 18+ more often on these kinds of waters. If you'd like to dive a little deeper into not just the how but the why, where & when we do things, our long-form videos and all of our trout stream fly fishing courses are at our Digital Membership over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/jensenflyfishing/about

[@troutman007]

@@jensenflyfishing thanks for the info, I have sometimes cut the loop on the leader and extended the butt section so that the fly would turnover better and that’s works for me, but I dont always have “that heavy of tippet” with me and was wondering what other option I have, but if just extending the leader works for you, I bet it will work for me too. Thanks again!

[@BP-1988]

Dave has an unfair advantage - He has great eyesight.

[@jensenflyfishing]

It's funny what we're all blessed or born with and how it works for us over a lifetime and helps shape who we are. 20/5 eyesight and an aptitude for trout is a good thing in my world :) DJ

[@BP-1988]

You are blessed. Good eyesight runs in our family. I think it was what kept my father alive as a combat pilot during WWII as he could see the bad guys before they say him. Even at 72, I can still tie a size 30 fly (with a little help from magnifiers) and see an indicator fairly well without glasses.

[@jensenflyfishing]

@@BP-1988 Boy, those are getting to be days gone by: visual combat flying. At 51 I'm on that technological cusp in the 'tweener world of yester-year and the remote control era. It's incredible what we've been influenced by and the massive differences of generations, isn't it? I love that you can see to tie those flies and see those indicators. We never know how long we'll be so blessed but good on you, here's hoping another 15+ years of good eyes and time on the water :)

[@big1dog23]

Classic

[@jensenflyfishing]

Love these fish :)

[@akintomeatloaf]

Well done, Amelia! I'm going to assume that having that 18' leader really helped with managing the almost immediate drag you must've gotten from that main current seam, right? Love the vids!

[@jensenflyfishing]

18' leader to ensure my fly line wasn't anywhere near what I generally believed to be its feeding window. Then a reach built into my cast that allowed my fly to drift naturally to the fish. That bought me just enough nano seconds before the close current put drag on my line!

[@akintomeatloaf]

@@jensenflyfishing Yeah, I should've mentioned that reach! How was the fish not spooked on previous casts when you did get drag? Were you fishing on the outside of its feeding window so it wouldn't pull the fly unnaturally and spook it?

[@jensenflyfishing]

@@akintomeatloaf Reading fish behaviour speaks a lot to what you can/can't get away with - and all of what you are asking gets into the detail we share in our Producers' Notes for each video at our digital membership - those are pretty intricate details of experience www.patreon.com/jensenflyfishing

[@AardvarkJamBalloon]

I've never fished NZ but I've always wondered why there are so few trout and why they're so massive... I've fished spring creeks in the US and my experience has been the opposite - high fish densities and lower average size. Any insight into why these creeks are like that?

[@jensenflyfishing]

Hi & thank you for the question. If you get the chance to get to NZ, do it. Not so much for the size of fish but for the process of fly fishing. It is so much more valuable from a fly fishing advancement perspective than Patagonia that it's simply a great addition to your skill set. Ultimately, NZ is set up in waters that are far more impacted to the absolute extremes of drought & flood and those factors impact population dynamic structure. Weather dictates a LOT there. While in-stream biomass availability is very similar, there are fewer fish utilizing the resource and lone cows with endless hay bales tend to get big & fat.

[@RobGorecki-mr9vk]

You know, here in alberta its definitely challenging lets talk about here in alberta. You wanna talk about small stream. Let’s see what you have for us in the spring! BTW water levels are low!

[@RobGorecki-mr9vk]

Let’s have a beer!

[@jensenflyfishing]

:) Alberta isn't exactly difficult, thankfully. There's definitely been plenty of footage from the small streams around the province on the channel as you know, hope you've enjoyed that. We'll see how the season goes, lots of forecasting but we'll see what happens, where. Here's hoping it's a good season :)

[@RobGorecki-mr9vk]

My favourite video was when you guys went biking deep in the mountain forest and you guys saw a Bigfoot print but continued to fish. I have photos of Bigfoot prints on my fishing journey in Canmore!