Big or Small

Fishing tiny dry flies (sizes 20-28) can be a real challenge; when the only trout you see on the river are selectively feeding on tiny tricos it is silly to toss anything even barely visible from 20 feet away, right? Wrong! Trout feed on beetles, grass hoppers, crickets, damsel flies, stone flies, and whatever else happens to land in their feeding lane. Big flies catch fish even during the hottest days of the summer, especially in pocket water, along undercut banks, and beneath overhanging trees and bushes. It doesn't surprise me to hook into an aggressive trout even in white water so turbulent that it is nearly impossible to get more then a ten foot drift. I am more likely to fool a fish if I am fishing for trout that have to strike quickly to fill their stomachs. I understand the appeal of fishing an early morning trico hatch on a glass-smooth stretch of river using the most delicate flies, tippet, and presentation to fool trout that seem to be studying the slowly passing flies waiting for the perfect one to strike; however, I find that moving from pocket to pocket, covering a lot of water, and using a relatively big dry fly is the method I use most often with the most success.