Skinny Glass: 5 Tricks to Catch More Trout in Low, Clear Water 

Low, clear water makes fishing more challenging, but if you tailor your gear, approach, and presentation to the conditions, you can catch gorgeous trout, like this Wyoming cutthroat. Photo: Phil Monahan

I’ve always hated the term “gin clear.” Not only is the expression both incredibly cliché and a reference to my least favorite liquor—it tastes like bug spray to me—but anytime you describe a river or stream as being gin clear, you’re facing some extremely tough fishing conditions.

Trout in low, clear water become spooky, selective, and harder to approach than your high school crush. This is especially true on popular rivers during late summer and early fall, as the fish have been pressured for months by anglers and will often run like rabbits as soon as your fly hits the water.

Yet, all hope is not lost. While catching trout in low, clear water can be a challenge, it’s far from impossible. In fact, with the right gear, techniques, and approach, you can catch those spooky fish.

1. Downsize Your Gear

Unlike in the early season when the water can be high and murky and the fish have to be opportunistic, trout in low and clear water have time to be selective. They don’t have to work hard, swimming against the current to find food, and can move more freely, allowing them to really look flies over before deciding to eat. Accordingly, splashing down the same big flies and heavy tippet you used in the middle of the season isn’t the smartest idea. Instead, you’ve got to use smaller tippets and flies.

Lighter tippet and smaller everything else will help minimize disturbance on the water when your cast lands. Photo: Kubie Brown

A lighter leader and tippet not only make your presentation less visible to the trout, but they create less drag and make your presentation look more natural. As a general rule, start by dropping one to two tippet sizes from what you fish in high water. Instead of using the same 3X and 4X you fished earlier in the year, drop down to 5X and 6X and you should notice an almost immediate difference in your strike rate.

A lighter rod with a slower action can also help. Instead of a fast-action 5-weight or 6-weight, use a slower-action rod of the same weight or drop down to that small-stream 4-weight or 3-weight rod. These rods are more forgiving with lighter tippet, allowing you to set the hook and fight fish with fewer break offs.

If you don’t have a lighter rod, then you have to downsize your movements and the pressure on the fish. Instead of setting the hook hard and fast, use a slow and easy sweeping motion that won’t break the fish off with sudden tension. When you’re hooked up, fight the fish with your rod held high and make a lot of directional changes, rather than the direct, hard pressure you’d normally put on a big fish.

In addition to your rod and leader, use smaller flies, split shot, and strike indicators than you normally would in higher water. Everything in low-and-clear conditions is about being subtle and discreet, so use as few split shot as possible and tiny white, or clear strike indicators or those made from hair or wool whenever you can.

2. Go Long

Everything in low-clear water fishing comes down to distance. Skinny water trout are extremely wary of shadows and anything that looks unnatural on the surface, so the more distance between your fly line and your fly, the better. However, casting and mending with long leaders can be challenging, especially for newer anglers, so there are a few things to keep in mind when fishing with longer leaders.

A long leader makes it less likely that your line will spook wary, shallow-water trout. Photo: Kubie Brown

Generally, you should add at least 1 to 3 feet of tippet to your standard 9-foot leader for fishing in low-clear water. You can also do this by buying a 10-foot or 12-foot leader, but I prefer adding a 2-foot to 3-foot length of tippet to my leader right out of the package. This lets me drop a tippet size and create a longer leader with a thinner diameter line closer to my fly and a thicker butt section near my fly line, allowing for an easier turnover.

When you’re fishing with a long leader, slow casts are good casts. You’ve got to give the loop time to unroll and completely straighten out both in your backcast and on your delivery in order to prevent pile-ups and splash downs, which are sure to spook the trout. Try your best to cast with more open loops to prevent tangling and keep your rod as high as possible on your forward cast so that the leader can completely straighten before dropping your fly discretely onto the water’s surface.

If you’re fishing in an area without a lot of back cast room or are using a heavier nymph rig, you’re going to need to roll cast. However, a traditional roll cast can create a lot of commotion and is almost sure to spook the trout. To prevent this, move as far upstream of your target area as you can. Then cast and drift your flies downstream to the fish by stack mending to extend your drift. This will give both the water and the trout a chance to settle down before your fly reaches them.

3. Subtle Patterns

In low-clear conditions, your flies should be as drab and dull as possible. No matter how much you may like pink or yellow collars or wings, flies that are mostly olive, brown, gray, white, and black will be better producers.

You’ll also want to choose nymphs with less sparkle or flash, and that includes beadhead patterns. Those bright brass and gold beads, which normally act as an attractant, can actually spook fish in low, clear water. Instead, choose nymphs that are either weightless, like the English Pheasant Tail, or those with natural or dull colored beads, rather than bright and shiny ones. (Hot spots are also out.) If you can’t find the beads you’re looking for, use a black or brown marker to darken or dull the beads on the nymphs already in your box.

Choose fly patterns with subtle colors, thinner profiles, and less bulky bodies. Photo: Kubie Brown

Dry flies should be at least one to two sizes smaller than you would normally use and should match the hatch as closely as possible. If you’re having trouble finding an exact imitation or the fish are still refusing your fly, switch to a smaller, cripple and emerger pattern like the Last Chance Cripple or Klinkhåmer. If you plan to use hopper or stonefly patterns, they’ll need to be as small and subtle as you can find; the Hopper Grande and Still Stone are two of my favorites. Likewise, any ants, beetles, or other terrestrial flies should be as realistic as possible, with patterns like the Black Toast Ant, Acid Ant, and Para Beetle being ideal.

If you’re fishing with streamers in low-clear water, hair- and feather-wing patterns in small sizes are usually going to be better producers than larger, more gaudy streamers. Classic streamers like the Black Nose Dace, Magog Smelt, and Muddler Minnow can be very effective in low, clear water, as are unweighted Woolly Buggers and Zonkers.

4. Look for Depth and Structure

Trout can survive in surprisingly shallow water, but they don’t necessarily want to. Because shallow water makes trout more vulnerable to aerial predators like eagles and ospreys and food is scarce on open flats, trout gravitate toward the deepest water they can find, especially when the sun is high. This can include slightly deep pockets or drop-offs along the bank, but trout really like deep, slow moving water around structure.

The darker water signals depth, and the many boulders offer trout protection from predators. Photo: Phil Monahan

Pools in front of and behind mid-river boulders, eddies around logs, slow flowing undercut banks, and channel splits around islands are all ideal low-water locations for trout, as they offer deeper water and some form of overhead cover. Ideal spots will have water deep enough that it’s hard to see the bottom, but even slightly deeper, slower flowing depressions in these areas will likely hold a fish or two. However, fishing these areas does mean taking a few risks.

To catch trout consistently in these pockets of deep cover, you must cast close. Trout in these areas hug tight to the structure and often are willing to move just a few inches away from it to feed. If you want to catch them, you can’t be afraid to cast under brush, and into the center of log jams, and to bang your flies up against rocks. While this may mean losing some flies to snags, you can usually make up for it by bringing some nice trout to the net.

5. Engage Stealth Mode

Any time you’re approaching a river in low, clear conditions, you’ve got to be sneaky. Skinny-water trout are wary and will run for the hills at the first sign of a predator moving on the bank. The fish can see surprisingly far in clear water, and because sound and vibrations travel more freely in the shallows, the fish can pick up on any errant steps or fast movements you make. To quote one of my favorite lines from The Outlaw Josey Wales, “You’ve got to move like molasses in the wintertime” if you want to get within casting range of these fish.

A cutthroat eats an insect off the surface in low, clear water. These fish still have to eat, but they are incredibly wary and spooky, so stealth is important. Photo: Kubie Brown

When you approach a low clear river, creep along, using brush, trees, and other bankside foliage to break up your outline. Take a few steps and search the water for a trout or a likely spot to catch a trout and then move into a casting position as slowly as you can. If you’re in a more open area, you may need to stay farther back from the bank and make longer casts, and keep low and make casts from a crouched position or even from your knees.

When you cast at trout in low clear water it’s important to remember both your shadow and the shadow of the line over the water can still spook them. This isn’t a time to make a lot of false casts, which will throw shadows over the water. Instead, try to make one smooth accurate cast that will drop your fly into range and allow you to make as perfect a presentation as possible. If you need to make multiple false casts, try to make them out to the side rather than directly over the fish.

Finally, wear neutral-colors or clothing that matches the surroundings. Nothing will make a fish spook faster than approaching it in a bright, fluorescent shirt, and it wouldn’t be overcompensating to go after skinny-water trout wearing full camo.

Through The Looking Glass

The low-clear water of the late season forces you to adapt and overcome challenges, but there are ways to make it work. So the next time water levels drop and the water becomes as clear and still as glass, don’t just take off your waders and pray for rain — go out and see if you can make something happen. You may be surprised with just how good the fishing can be.