Fishing in the rain??

[gulfgreyhound]

Living in the Lightening Capitol of the World I have a genuine fear ,respect for any storm. A bolt out of the blue, lightening can strike 2 miles from a storm in blue sky weather. Best seek shelter till it passes. A Fish has good advice.
After the storm when the water takes on a green hue I've had memorable catches of big browns and no lightening to worry about.
Being "stuck" in a boat off shore can get a bit hairy and avoiding storms and waterspouts can be and experience I'd rather forget. GG

 

[krayfish]

well, sometimes it's easy and sometimes you never really figure it out. When there are that many 'types' of bugs on the water, it's pretty likely that each fish is feeding on something different. I have a small pair of binoculars that I keep handy. I can watch the riser and hopefully see what he's eating. The rise form is another indicator as to what type or stage or insect they are eating. Splashy rises often tell you that they fish might be chasing caddis. Very gentle sips might be mayfly emergers, cripples or spinners. You do a bunch of staring at the water to see what's in the film.

Examples:

On Wednesday, found a pod of 4 rising fish in a 20' section of bank. Green Drakes and 2 sizes of sulphurs were on the water. 3 of the fish were rising with enthusiasm and 1 was gently sipping. I cast a drake emerger over all of the fish. All took a swipe at it except the sipper. The gentle riser wouldn't deviate from what he was keyed in on so I changed and got him to take a #18 sulphur emerger.

Monday evening I had a nice grey fox hatch going on with some sulphurs mixed in. So far, very simple. In the air was an astonishing amount of egg laying caddis. In 30 years of fly fishing, never saw anything like it. I get to some slightly broken water and find fish slashing. OK, they are on caddis....wrong. I threw caddis, grey fox emerger, grey fox parachute and got no response. I look down and notice 4 march brown spinners go by in less than 2 seconds. Changed to a march brown spinner and took a fish on the first cast. Caught 4 more on that bank with the same pattern. 30 minutes later the rises changed to sips. They stopped taking my fly and I'll assume they switched to spent caddis that finally hit the water. It was getting dark so I didn't feel like tying on a new fly and left.

It's a lot of observation / trial and error. I only cast 3-5 times over a fish and then go back to observing. Pounding a fish with something he's not interested in results in the fish going away. Figure it out and make minimal casts....especially on big or heavily pressured fish.

 

[PASKIINGSUCKS]

No I did not fish in the rain after all, but I will certainly take the advice and experience posted here and run with it. Thanks to all who contributed.

Trust me I would have rather fished in the rain. Instead we loaded and unloaded about 3 mowers, 15 bicycles, 6 dirtbikes, 5 kayaks, and a washer and dryer..........in the rain.

Did try the sculpin the day after the rain though. First cast somethin large smashed it as soon as I stripped it once, but I missed the hookup. Was having trouble working it to the bottom as I had no weight and it's tied unweighted, did manage to land a fallfish on it though so at least it didn't skunk me. Will definitely be trying this and some woolies in the next rainy afternoon.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, when a bunch of stuff is coming off, it's a combination of knowledge, observation, and experience. But it can be a tough situation, no doubt. If it were easy, this would be a boring sport!

Knowledge - this is the kind of thing where you know that Bug X hatches from riffly, rocky areas, and bug Y from slower water with silty bottoms. Or that bug X swims to the surface as a nymph and floats a while, while bug Y transforms on the bottom and flies to the surface, while bug Z isn't actually hatching, but laying eggs, and they do this by skittering the surface.

Observation - If you can see a bug get taken, that's great! But more often, you're observing rise forms. Sips and dimples? Porpoises? Splashy rises? All out jumps? When combined with knowledge, can help you determine which bug, and in what form, is being eaten.

Experience - If you've fished this stream and hole before, you know that the fish up in that thar riffle really like X emergers dead drifted, while those down thar in that tailout cruise around for the egg layers and require a bit of a skitter, but theyr'e all dinks. Meanwhile, the true hogs of this pool don't rise at all, they sit on the bottom in the deep, fast part over there and eat big honkin stonefly nymphs.

But be careful with the last category. It's easy to use it as a crutch, and be overly sure of yourself. Things change. Maybe you didn't notice that while not yet hatching, the Green Drake nymphs have become active, and those hogs in the deep fast water have moved to the slower water and kicked those dinks the heck out of there! What you thought was a dink making a splashy rise down there was actually a chub escaping a 20 inch brownie.

And that's what this sport is all about. Learning what's happening. It's why a casual observer, like a hiker, can never be as in tune with nature as a hunter or fishermen. They just can't ever notice these things.

 

[PASKIINGSUCKS]

Very well said man. I always tell my city friends that hunters are some of the most knowledgeable woodsman and they look at me like I'm crazy. They think we just drink beer and kill #censor# out there.

 

[phiendWMD]

Thank you kray and pcray for answering so completely. I know it must of taken a few minutes to type that all out and I appreciate both of you sharing your knowledge.

 

[krayfish]

If you ever want to fish, shoot me a PM. I have no issue helping out someone that's interested in the sport or getting another anglers take on things.

 

[JackM]

Never discount the value of blind luck and never underestimate the stupidity of trout when an all-you-can-eat buffet line of food is available. When something takes on the status of "good food" it matters not what else is around.

To the trout, that and only that is worth calculating the reward/benefit of "taking." Yet, without an occasional randomness, trout would starve. So I always observe and determine what I think they are taking.

I cast this over and over the same lies, not being satisfied that pattern or presentation is wrong until I have had the "perfect drift." If nothing convinces me that they are "on" my pattern, then I shift the pattern to the next most likley.

If you are good at presenting two flies, try tandom dries. If you get a clue they liked one pattern, but the rig is disturbing proper presentation, then break the one off and cast the other more carefully.

As was noted "trial and error" is the process-- but knowledge, observation and experience can let you take the best trial and error approach that will lead you to the solution sooner, rather than later. And when "later" is darkness and difficult fly changes, you will appreciate knowledge, observation and experience as never before.

 

[barbless]

If you think lightning could be a problem, use a fiberglass or cane rod instead of graphite. But mostly, stay under cover until the storm passes.

I waited out a rainstorm on Penn's a few weeks ago. It was worth it.

 

[bamboojohn]

When it's raining out I love fishing under bridges because Trout don't like to get wet!!!!

 

[Coughlin]

Oh well, the post prompted good advice anyway. I have seen lightening strike across the stream from where I was hunkered down...truly terrified by what was going on around me. I was glad to have learned beforehand that it would have been a really, really bad idea to have been clutching my graphite rod as a security blanket. Afish's post is good for all to read.
Coughlin

 

[krayfish]

This might help..... just after the thunderstorm last night, I took the dog out. My car and side of the home were covered in bugs. Fishing in the rain can be awesome.

 

[CRB]

here is a bit of advice if you are wearing a hat remove the button on it. It is usually made of mettle.

 

[somersetian]

I fished laurel hill creek in the rain a few times in the past 2 weeks. The most effective rig was a size 10 bead head orange scud tied off the tippet tag followed by a sculpin. I followed the scud with some wet flies that worked well. The scud was there at first just for weight but i caught a few fish on it as well.