Big Horn River Brown Trout. http://www.MontanaMatt.com
It’s time to plan your vacation. You have new hopes and dreams of catching that fish of a lifetime or maybe it’s your first time fly fishing ever. It takes a lot of time planning and getting ready for your trip and I am sure you want to be very successful. So here are some tips that will help you a lot during your trip with a fly fishing guide.
#1~ Come in ready to listen and learn. The clients of mine that do the best are very good listeners. They apply everything I teach them and in turn are very successful in catching lots of fish.
For Example:
Right now on the Big Horn River it is very mossy. Moss on your hooks is no bueno! Fish aren’t vegetarians and because of that you need to be constantly cleaning your hooks.
I had some clients the other day that wouldn’t clean their hooks ever. I would tell them every time and they would look at me like I was crazy. I would take their rod, show them how to take off the moss, or even take it off myself. As soon as I would leave to help the other person in the group, I would look back to see them casting and their hook would have 2 feet of moss hanging on it. I would say clean your hooks, they have moss on it! They would look at me like I was crazy and keep casting it over and over again wandering why they weren’t catching anything.
Then I get the clients that want to learn and listen. They are cleaning their hooks constantly like I taught them and they are catching fish all the time.
Point is: Make sure you listen to your guide and if you decide not to, don’t be sad when you only catch a few fish.
Their is nothing more frustrating in the guiding world then having to repeat ourselves a million times and someone not listening. Eventually we start to feel like you don’t care and believe it or not we love to watch you catch fish. So #1 rule is to listen up and get ready to catch some fish!
#2~ It’s way better to cast really well than to cast a million feet of line.
The truth about fly fishing is you don’t need to cast a bunch of line to catch a bunch of fish. The guide knows the river really well and will get you to the places you need to be, to catch fish. I always position my boat that way my clients never have to cast more than 15 to 20 feet to be in the correct place to catch fish.
I will tell my clients this multiple times but for some reason every once in awhile they will decide they want to impress me. They strip out so much fly line that even the best fly casters in the world would start to wonder if they could cast that much. They are hitting the water on their back cast and only getting it about 30 feet away from the boat and worst yet it is all tangled. They look at you and say “the wind sure does crazy things”!
Just remember the only thing the guide is impressed with on a day of fishing with his/her clients is how good of listeners and appliers they are.
Ross Slayton with Beautiful Rainbow
#3~ Stay within your comfort level and gradually test yourself.
What I mean by this, is to not have too high of expectations when you are new to the sport. This sport takes time to learn and if you are expecting a 100 fish day or catching a spooky trout with a perfect 60 foot cast your first time out, you’ll be disappointed.
Go out on your day of fly fishing with your guide with no expectations besides having a great day and wanting to absorb a lot of great tips. I know you’ll have a blast if you don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Go to learn and put into practice everything the guide teaches you.
The clients of mine that catch the most fish are the ones who listen the best. They might need lots of help in perfecting their cast and presentations but they are listening and applying constantly.
The guide will give you 100% so all we ask if you give us a 100%. It is such a fun sport and I hope this helps you out in your next fly fishing vacation!
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