Fishing Fast Moving Water

My daylight fishing trip this week on Tuesday, May 8, fell through so the Sipsey Tailrace was my second choice, which proved to be the best choice. Here in Alabama we are finally getting those warmer days with some humidity mixed in. That is what Sam and I encountered Tuesday, a warm comfortable day with clear blue skies and a slight breeze in the gorge. Sam is the college student I met as I was suiting up. He told me he had never fished the tailrace; so I offered to let him fish along with me for the 4 to 5 hours we had to fish before the generators were turned on. I’m glad the trout were active and he got to experience landing a bunch of trout using his 6 weight and my 3 weight. He told me after we completed the trip that his next fly rod purchase would be a 3 weight.

One of many rainbow trout Sam landed before we left the gorge that afternoon; notice the two fly rods.

Reverting back to the title of this post, I showed Sam how to fish in fast moving water today. We fished some of the fast runs that I had fished before. The key to attracting a take when fishing water this fast is no drag at all. Some of the runs can be 10 ft. to 30 ft. long or more. I like to fish all the runs here standing where the fast water begins and letting the nymph float though the run as I release fly line to keep the nymph drag free. The current is going sink your indicator a lot in the form of false takes but the reward is when you connect with a true trout take. The lesson here is never take you eyes off your indicator when fishing any fast moving runs. I landed numbers of trout today in runs that was no wider than 2 ft. and as shallow as 2 to 3 ft. deep. I lost a lot of trout today because I had to play the trout back to my position at the start of the fast water. If I had waded to the trout to land them, then I would have scared the rest of the very trout I was fishing for. So to give me a landing advantage on my next trip I will be using my 4 weight to add a little more muscle to steer the trout to my net. The wading staff is a must when navigating the current to get into position to drift your nymph.

  Colorful gill plate on this bow; I remember hooking this trout at least 30 ft. down the run from where I was standing. It went airborne several times before I netted it.

What a fitting way to end the trip on this great tailrace today. We are blessed here in Alabama to have a place like the Sip to land rainbow trout!!