Reading Water

What does it mean to be a fly fishing guide? To an outsider taking a quick glance, it may look like a job where someone just "takes" a couple of anglers fishing for the day. Upon closer inspection, one realizes the breadth of tasks that a guide endures day in and day out. During a typical guided fly fishing trip, most fly fishing guides act as chauffeurs, food servers, skilled oarsmen, casting instructors, mending instructors, knot tiers, fly selectors, tangle experts, story tellers and therapists. In addition to all of this, we spend most of our day "reading water", and telling our anglers exactly where to cast. In fact, this is arguably the most important skill in fly fishing. A perfect cast, with the perfect fly, with a perfect drift over the wrong water will not net you a fish. Ninety percent of trout typically live in only ten percent of the water. Identifying, or "reading" this water is crucial to being successful. Over the past week, I had the chance to guide many skilled anglers on the Green River, the Snake River and the Wind River. All of these rivers were fishing well, with eager trout looking for dry flies in just the right spots. Many of my recent clients exhibited great casting and mending skills, but lacked in understanding how to read water. As I am rowing the river, I am always looking ahead to the next spot to have my clients cast their fly. Conveying the exact spot to both anglers while rowing can be difficult. Often, it takes numerous casts for the fly to finally hit the desired target, and by then, it is often too late. I guess the realization I had this week was that even when I get to guide an angler with a true expert level of casting and mending, if they can't read the water, it can still be very tough. Teaching someone how to read water is very difficult; the best way to learn, is to fish as much as possible with trial and error. Check out Reading The Water, by Dave Hughes...it's a great handbook that every fly fisher should have in his or her library.

For anyone interested, my buddy Mark Ditzler has a great website showing off some of his glass fish art. Check it out. Finally, enjoy this photo of a 26" Brown Trout netted in the Wind River Canyon (via one of Darren Calhoun's great guides), caught by my buddy John Holland. I'd say John can read water reasonably well. Great fish H-Bomb!!