Real Web Research

Having noticed that I'd let a broad-shouldered trout get the best of me and break off my dropper fly, Chetola Lodge guide Dustin Coffey started walking downstream to where he had me positioned in the stream. Halfway to me he stopped and knelt for a couple of minutes, peering through brush along the steep creek bank as if he'd dropped something.

He smiled when he stood back up, sporting the look of a man who had found what he'd been looking for, but I hadn't seen him grab anything. Able to read the question on my face, he answered without me having to ask. "Spider web. I was looking to see what's on today's menu." 

When Coffey pulled out his fly box, he didn't do that typical pondering gaze across his flies. He was after something specific, based on what he'd seen in the spider web, and he found it quickly. I won't tell you what fly he grabbed. (He said it was a secret!) And in truth, what fly he tied on my dropper that day isn't nearly as important as the fly best matches the bugs you find in any webs beside a stream you are fishing.

I can tell you the fly he grabbed with such confidence worked really well!

-More about fishing in the North Carolina High Country