No fly fisherman’s tactics are quite the same as another. From what I have seen of the North Fork, this is comforting.

The first time I fished it we floated down using a true and tested method. With a dropper rig and weighted against a sight detector, we trolled through runs and stopped at likely places to do a bit of wading and casting.

It’s a very good way to fish the North Fork but certainly not the only one. Moreover, it is not a way with which I am entirely comfortable. Another time I went with one of the best fly fishing strategist I know. The river has a reputation for not giving up its treasure too easily, so one has a tendency to want to fish it with methods and fly patterns of known success.

We took a canoe, but used it only to get from place to place where we would get out and wade. Best advice had us using prince nymphs, woolly buggers, and another the name of which I cannot remember. My companion liked to fish quickly downstream along the riffles and then back up the same riffle more slowly. Fishing down the riffle quickly gave him a good idea of its structure and equipped him for the more serious work wading back up, fishing up and across.

He used a lot of slack line casts, especially chuck casts, role cast, short cast and short drifts. The use of a woolly bugger was quickly discarded because it often badly twists the leader in fast water. My friends loves to fish upstream and uses a rather clever method to do it. While he would fish back up the riffle he rather seemed to prefer the tail water and its pools and always gave it a very thorough going over. He took a lot of fish and I didn’t take many.

Now I tend to like fishing with 20 to 40 feet of line down and across the flow. It’s a more pleasant way to wade and easier to move to various vantage points. Moreover, most of the fish that I have taken have been at the end of a drift. So I prefer shorter drifts to fewer long ones.

Fish are all over the North Fork and I am often surprised where I get good hits. I have frequently found them just inside the seam in shallow water, very close to the bank. This has happened to me many times while wading down stream, just trying to keep the line in faster water so I wouldn’t have to take it in while moving down stream. The fly swings out of the faster water toward the bank and I’m still moving down stream getting ready to put the fly back in the fast run when BANG!!

More often than not such hits are a surprise, and as a result I miss the trout. The North Fork has a stable bottom, so if you can find them there are certain holding spots that are a sure thing. I can only wish good luck in this search for they are scattered here and there.

Often overlooked, I think, is the headwater before the riffle. I tend to want to stand at the top of the riffle and fish its seams, making up for stream cast into the headwater. My best fish, however, have been caught standing far behind the headwater of a riffle and letting a large swing find its way into the headwater pools.

Too often, when I fail to get a hit on the first several casts in headwater shallows and anxious to reach the beginning of turbulent water of the riffle, I defect my vantage point sooner than I should and splash into and across the holding areas of the headwaters, ruining them.

Try standing behind the headwater, drift into them and give them a good chance to produce. Cast out into a gentle current providing a little slack if needed. The float should be more sweeping than looped. Often it unfolds with a long vertical drift.

Subsurface and dry flies are best. Since these waters are shallow, weighted flies tend to hang up, and getting one loose spoils the water. Often it unfolds with a long vertical drift. Subsurface and dry flies are best. Since these waters are shallow weighted flies tend to hang up and getting one loose spoils the water.

Using this approach I feel certain that you are visible to the trout. I do not think this makes much difference if you don’t move around too much. I expect trout, much like other creatures, stop feeding when something out of ordinary occurs nearby, but in a short time settle down to whatever they’re doing as soon as they are confident that the change presents them no danger.

In the North Fork I have stood casting away amusing myself by watching feeding trout not six feet away. Trout would come into the hold: sometimes there would be three, sometimes two, sometimes only one. To get them to desert the hold, one would have to chase them out.

I don’t think reasonable sized trout have natural fear of anything. Why should they? They have no natural predators and dominate the cold water. One time, wading in, I came across four or five trout giving a certain spot on the bottom a good deal of their attention. I was too close so I backed away to get some casting distance. One big fellow spotted me backing away. He took my retreat to be fear and began to stalk me making sure that I would stay out of his territory. When I was at a distance satisfying to both of us he sheered off.

  North Fork Trout Fishing