42 Fly Fishing Strategy Tips

August 28, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

As the final installment of MidCurrent‘s essential fly fishing tips, we’ve collected 42 Fly Fishing Strategy Tips. They cover fly selection, approach, presentation, and landing and releasing fish, and we hope you’ll find an example or two of clear thinking about common challenges.
To get you started:
Size Matters When choosing trout flies, the relative importance of fly characteristics in your selection, in order, should be: size, shape, color, and action (for stripped flies). In saltwater, action is often more important than exact size and shape.
Dropper Flies or Tandem Rigs Dropper flies are a trout angler’s secret weapon. A simple dropper rig can be made by tying a small nymph onto 14-18 inches of tippet material tied to the bend of a dry fly. If the trout takes the nymph, the dry fly serves as your indicator. Nymphs can also be tied in tandem, enabling you to find out which nymph is working better.
(If you haven’t read our other tips, you can find them here: Fly Fishing Gear Tips and Fly Casting Tips.)