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3. up or down

Do you prefer to fish upstream or down and why?

Personally I prefer up. I feel I don't disturb the fish, they have less chance of seeing me. If I'm on a larger stream, 40-50ft in width and fishing streamers or the like I prefer down. Quartering and swinging. I feel like fishing down with a dry or nymph is like walking the dog.

I prefer to fish the direction that optimizes my chances for success. Also, the particular water and conditions often demand (or allow) one or the other.

For trout I'm fishing up most of the time, bc I'm fishing a passive presentation, as when targeting drift feeding trout -dry or wet. But I switch to downstream when fishing an active presentation, which could include dry's, nymphs, wets, or streamers. Good examples of the latter include: heavily roiled water, night, peri-Isonychia emergences, stale migrants, "Leisenring Lift" (under my rod-tip), "filching" bigger fish from pools using a cross-current retrieve, streamer tossing (often with leadcore head -even on smaller streams), when feeding flies back into dense cover or big pools (targeting drop-back steelhead or BIG resident browns), with dry’s when I don’t want to line spooky fish, and at times when covering tailouts where it can be easier to get a good drift all the way back from the side rather than up. I can probably think of more …lol

When steelheading on big deeper waters, I tended to fish down/across bc of the fact that I can't get very close to the fish, which I generally need to do to fish a passive fly upstream most effectively. But when steelheading on small streams I often fished passive upstream with a nymph/egg, spotting and marking fish as I go. Then I'd switch to downstreaming rig to swing or hang a streamer/wet to those fish. Man was that exciting!

Sounds like the TV commercial - "I pick things up and I put things down."

Since I am mostly a dry fly guy I prefer to get above my target and slightly on an angle so when I throw my fly and leader are approaching the target fish and the line is way off to the side.

On those rare occassions when I nymph for trout, and always when I nymph for steelhead, I cast just slightly upstream, mend up, and let the fly drift drag free until it gets below me, then pick up and repeat.

I honestly don't have a preference on fishing up or down stream. It all depends on what the situation at hand offers me and the body of water that i am fishing. I love throwing dries when i can, nymphing, chucking streamers, swinging wets, you name it. All of these techniques require different river angles, and i do them all pretty equally.

Dry fly up, streamer down...

Jonathon

I like Entoman's comment... there is no "blanket" approach.... at times, even streamers fish best upstream. Very often, dries fish best downstream,,, depends on the water, conditions, etc.

My blanket approach is to always fish down...laziness. I don't even like to go back up to get my driftboat when I get out and fish riffles. Wish the boat would follow me down. But I do fish small dries especially up into the riffle, and follow it down.

Doublespey; ahahahahahahah i love the answer good stuff brother!

Doublespey wrote;

"I don't even like to go back up to get my driftboat when I get out and fish riffles. Wish the boat would follow me down."

I've figured out how to solve that problem. Often when I go out with a buddy in the Hyde , or my two man kayak, I'll get out and fish down river from the boat. Many times my buddies will stay close to the boat. If I'm far from the boat, say 200', I'll just call up to the guy to either walk the boat down or get in and row it down. I figure I'm providing the boat the least they can do is bring it down to me for crying out loud!

Hey Jess...This one's pretty funny as well, eh!? :) Maybe Matt will let you or I play boat tender for him sometime...The only problem I see is, he's probably caught all the fish from the boat down to where he is standing, so some sort of "taking turns" might be appropiate...Otherwise it's all work and no trout.:)

Spence

Hey Matt & Jere,

Why don't you go to the closest college with a rowing team and post a notice on the bulletin board offering "free training facilities, great workout guaranteed, lunch provided":)

Hey Kurt! Co-eds more than welcome...;) Bikini's optional.

Spence

Sounds like a good idea. I bet that would solve a big problem that I always have. I row for someone in the boat off the banks, and then when their turn to row it's 10 ft. off the bank one second, and 75 ft. the next time I cast.
That's not an easy skill to learn. Takes lots of rowing, and lots of concentration. The bank doesn't stay straight, and neither does the current.

Thanks for the responses.

I don't fish streamers upstream, it just seems to me it's better action and easier to toss them down.

There will always be exceptions dependent on water, to whatever your own traditional approach is.

Tneal wrote, "Very often, dries fish best downstream"
Careful, blanket statement coming-I find people in northeast Michigan, more so those fishing the Au Sable, fish dries down. Smaller rivers like the White, upper PM, Little Man., I feel need an upstream approach.

Streamangler...We have touched on this here before and I'm not sure why that is, but, for the most part it appears to be true.

A good friend of mine fishes upstream, sometimes with nymphs, when nothing is going on...When a hatch gets going he switches to dries and continues upstream...Eventually he turns around and fishes back down to the vehicle...

Maybe we are just lazy and don't want to fight the current...;)

I fished the Little Manistee a couple years back and I agree with you...At least in the narrow river up towads M-37...Or say Spencer's Bridge...I did have a little fun fishing a stretch a ways down fron Spencer's Bridge downstream with a weighted stonefly nymph...My stepfather was with me and he's closing in on 80 and is a very short fellow and I was afraid I was going to lose him a few times in some of those deeper holes...:) We were there in late July and spotted a couple "hold-overs" that were longer than my arm!

Spence

I just spotted this post of yours Matt and I think we should do one of those commercials with you..."I catch Big Trout, and I let them go. I catch Big Trout and I let them go!" ;)

Spence

For me it depends on the type of the stream I'm fishing more than what technique I'm using. If I'm fishing a small stream, especially a spring creek where the fish are really touchy, then I'll almost always work my way upstream to keep from spooking fish. But for decent sized creeks and rivers I usually work my way downstream. In truth I don't really have a very good reason for doing in that way. I guess it's partially because when I started fly fishing, the first technique I learned was the wet-fly swing. So I started off fishing downstream for that reason, and now I prefer to work my way downstream no matter what sort of technique I'm using.

Oldred, length of your arm. . . That is a big part of why I love that river so much. They did plant summer run steel, once upon time.