Is working up-stream dead?

[csoult]

There will be many instances where you will run into drag issues if you are always working upstream.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Depends for all the other reasons listed but I'll add:
It also depends on the fly.
Ex:
I'll fish sulphurs going upstream.
I prefer to fish caddis and wets downstream.

The current makes skittering/swinging a lot easier and I find it much more effective than fishing them upstream.

YMMV of course.

 

[salmonoid]

I wade directly across the stream, perpendicular to the flow. Then I don't have to wrestle with deciding whether to fish upstream or downstream. It does tend to limit the amount of stream one can fish, though. And it can create angler conflict, say if another angler sets up shop directly across from you. If you both decide to wade across at the same time, it can create an impasse in the middle of the stream, kind of like a game of chicken, and you might have to blink and stand down.

On a serious note, I generally fish upstream. But on small streams with plunge pools, you can change techniques and fish a different fly on the way downstream, so I sometimes fish an equal amount upstream and downstream on a small stream. And on large streams, you can fish downstream as well. When nightfishing, I fish almost exclusively downstream.

 

[Swattie87]

salmonoid wrote:
I wade directly across the stream, perpendicular to the flow.

Haha...You're a pioneer.

 

[RLeep2]

My habits are such that I probably do 95% of my travel on the stream in an upstream direction, regardless of what I am fishing. For one thing, I'm almost always in motion when I fish and this means I leave a pretty significant sediment/silt trail in my wake. This matters, particularly on the smaller waters where I do the majority of my trout fishing.

There is a difference though between stream travel and fishing approach. I'll do what I need to do in order to make the fishing approach I think I need in a given situation. This includes making downstream presentations prn. So, just because I am working upstream does not necessarily mean I am always fishing upstream.

So far as the unwritten rules of angler traffic right of ways, etc., I always yield to another angler regardless of whether they are going up or down when we meet. Then, right after I yield, as often as not I'll just leave and go somewhere else. I get pretty misanthropic when I fish, unless of course I'm fishing with you. Otherwise, if I wanted to see other people, I'd go to the mall or something..

Regarding angler etiquette, I ran into something kind of odd when we were in the Midwest. There, at least according to some people, you were supposed to signal which way you went on the stream by parking on that berm of the bridge. On the upstream side if that is the way you went and vice versa. To be fair though, the handful of guys I ran into who actually thought this was a hard and fast rule were all loud mouth jerks in Cubs hats. More study is warranted..

 

[McSneek]

FarmerDave wrote:

McSneek wrote:
I like to set up my lawn chair in a good looking spot and may anchor there for hours if the gemmies are hitting. Man some people overthink this whole thing.

You should remove the forked sticks before you leave. They are like leaving a sign that states "fish here." ;-)

I always toss the forked sticks into the stream or woods and also try to remember to take my snelled hook packets and salmon egg jars with me. Don't want to give away a good spot.

 

[McSneek]

Friday evening on Penns Creek I watched a guy wade directly out from the bank about 30' until he was almost up to his arm pits in the water. He was in so deep his water bottle and some other trash floated out of the back of his vest. He had to keep his arms horizontal to the water surface to keep from getting wet. He turned around and basically started fishing back in the general direction he came from. It was hard to tell from where I was if he was fishing ever so slightly upstream or downstream. He didn't catch anything by the way...

 

[pete41]

Once on the Madison river during the Salmon fly hatch[crowded like penns] I walked quite a ways downstream to avoid the mob- started fishing upstream when four guys came down the path-two got in right above-two right below me-probably half mile either direction with no one on either side.
Knew they were out of stater's by that--no reason for it except figuring I might know where the fish were.Like opening day in the east....PO'ed me so I got out and went back in right above the fellows fishing up stream and started doing the amateur night at the bijou bit-sloppy casts et al-they both started hollering at me-really furious-one demanded to know "where are you from?"
I said ,very calmly "Bozeman". He misunderstood and said" New Jersey,well that figures." Thirty odd years later I am still laughing at that..Fond memories--they may have thought they had me outnumbered but I was betting not out rattlesnake protected.Like I said I can be a jerk with the best or worst of them...several times I was ganged up on that way-punks everywhere sadly.

 

[wildtrout2]

SurfCowboyXX wrote:
I believe this, because the fish face upstream, so you are approaching from their blind spot, and also because when you set the hook from downstream, you are driving the point into their head, whereas when you set the hook from upstream, you run the risk of pulling the fly from their mouth.

Couldn't agree more! That's exactly why I almost always fish upstream.

 

[NewSal]

Jeez, some of you take what I said as a hard-line law.
I dont always fish upstream, obviously, I fish downstream, upstream, and any way I can depending on conditions, but generally most of the time I work upstream - it just makes sense to do so.

The downstream yeilds to upstream, and the upstream approach are etiquites that I've heard from multiple old timers.

The point of this was to see if most people still are from the school of fishing upstream, and obviously that is not the case.

Thanks int:

 

[FarmerDave]

SurfCowboyXX wrote:
... I believe this, because the fish face upstream, so you are approaching from their blind spot, and also because when you set the hook from downstream, you are driving the point into their head, whereas when you set the hook from upstream, you run the risk of pulling the fly from their mouth.

All good points.

I also think one is less likely to hook one deep if casting upstream versus down. Once the fly is picked up, the drag on the line will pull the fly into the side of the mouth.

It seems that although rare, every time I have deep hooked a trout while using flies or even hardware, it was while I was retrieving upstream.

 

[FarmerDave]

NewSal wrote:
Jeez, some of you take what I said as a hard-line law.

Well, what do you expect after using the word "working" in a fly fishing thread?

The downstream yeilds to upstream, and the upstream approach are etiquites that I've heard from multiple old timers.

Self described purists no doubt.

The point of this was to see if most people still are from the school of fishing upstream, and obviously that is not the case.

Thanks int:

Serious now. I think if we measured the time fishing upstream versus down, the vast majority of us spend more time "working" upstream. It's just not cast in stone.

 

[Swattie87]

I see a lot of spincasters working downstream...just sayin'. :-o

If they're doing it, it's probably just plain wrong.

 

[pete41]

Hey NewSal-don't go,please stay---been awhile since we have had this much fun on Paff--

 

[NewSal]

pete41 wrote:
Hey NewSal-don't go,please stay---been awhile since we have had this much fun on Paff--

I knew it would pose plenty of opinions, and it looks like it pulled some folks from OT to actually talk about something fishing related - so its a win in my book

 

[NewSal]

FarmerDave wrote:

NewSal wrote:
Jeez, some of you take what I said as a hard-line law.

Well, what do you expect after using the word "working" in a fly fishing thread?

The downstream yeilds to upstream, and the upstream approach are etiquites that I've heard from multiple old timers.

Self described purists no doubt.

The point of this was to see if most people still are from the school of fishing upstream, and obviously that is not the case.

Thanks int:

Serious now. I think if we measured the time fishing upstream versus down, the vast majority of us spend more time "working" upstream. It's just not cast in stone.

Thanks for all the enlightenment in this thread Farmerdave, when do I pick up my degree in Farmerdave wisdom

 

[NewSal]

And what would you know, I did a search on upstream vs. downstream and one of my favorite blogs has an entire blog entry about it, I knew I couldnt of just imagined hearing this from people before..

https://troutbitten.com/2017/04/20/downstream-fisher-yields-upstream-fisher/

 

[NewSal]

Hope to sign in tomorrow morning and hear some more fantastic opinions, but for now Im headed to the j, hopefully everyone is working upstream this afternoon

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

I always fish upstream when possible. I usually fish away from where I park vs walking in and fishing back out. I always yield to the other person, and always put at least "out of eye sight" distance between me and the next angler if they are there first, and try to exchange a friendly word with anyone I bump into if they seem like they want to talk, usually at minimum a hello.

Reasons to fish upstream in any water is to avoid disturbing fish/water obviously. Shadows and wind direction also play a part, but honestly you should be walking, then stopping to cast, so your walking direction shouldn't have any bearing on your casting or position, as I've seen some people state, at least in my humble opinion.

 

[3wt7X]

I fish both up and downstream... if I'm nymphing, I almost always work up. Dry fly fishing on free stoners or high gradient streams is always up stream.

Down stream approaches for me often involve big rivers or larger streams during good hatches. I am not covering a lot of water during these situations. Mostly I am standing in anticipation or slowly wading like a set every minute, positioning myself on a fish or pod. I can tell you, 90 percent of my large dry fly fish are taken this way, with 40-60 foot reach mend casts and feeding line out. It's my favorite type of fly fishing by far. Swinging wets is the same approach, not as visual, but more relaxing because you can zone out and take in the scenery as the fly does the work for you.