Winter conjures contemplation. I’ve been reflecting on how my small stream fishing style has evolved. A couple years ago most of my casts involved tossing the fly upstream and drifting or slow strip retrieving. The last couple years I’ve been tossing downstream and swinging/stripping against the current. While I still deploy the upstream cast, the ratio flipped. Why? Because the tug on a tight line swing is awesome. I think Nate would agree that fishing
one Spring with Tim Pearson on some small WI streams helped influence our deployment of the downstream cast. I once saw Tim cast upstream but it turned out he was just releasing a downstream snag.
Here are a couple nice Fall fish caught swinging on Driftless streams. Also featuring stream side lunch of soup, burgers, beer (whiskey gone by then).
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| scar face |
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| ended the season with a fat 20". my biggest trout of the year. |
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| shelter from the strong wind |
