Thursday Tips: Believe the Fish

When I fish in current with a Road Runner Original Marabou or Pro Marabou 2.0, I almost always let the current do the bulk of the delivery work by casting to the upper ends of runs I want to fish and either twitching the rod as the bait drifts downstream or keeping the rod tip high and reeling just enough to keep the bait from dragging bottom. Not surprisingly, that was how I began fishing my Road Runner this week on the Nantahala River.

Sometimes I'll let the lure drift past my position and then tighten the line and let it swing in the current downstream -- and occasionally a trout hits it on the swing. Most days such hits are bonuses and make up a small piece of the action. It took me a while to notice yesterday that most of my strikes were occurring duringdownstream swings and longer to begin shifting the angles of my casts. It took even longer to truly believe the fish about their preferences and to mostly abandon the normally productive upstream casts.

Yesterday's specific presentation isn't as important as the often-stated but too-seldom-followed idea of truly allowing the fish to dictate things like casting anglers, color choices and presentations speeds. I still ended up catching quite a few trout, but I believe I would have caught quite a few more had I done a better job of following advice I sometimes give and often hear stated by pros and guides. It's one thing to listen to the fish. It's another to believe what they tell you and evidence that through the way you present your baits.