Tactics - Due West Anglers

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tactics Featured

Slackwater Strategies

Tackling strategies for fly fishing in slow velocity sections of tailwater and freestone trout streams

tips for catching more trout while fly fishing

tactics

Stay on Schedule to Find Success

Start the clock to figure out hatches or overcome challenging days on the water

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stillwater Featured

Stillwater Wind Ju-Jitsu

Understanding how to use wind to your advantage to catch trout on lakes and reservoirs

drift boat

Drift vs Wade: By the Numbers

Comparing success rates for wade anglers vs drift boat anglers

fish pale pat's rubber legs fly patterns when fly fishing the stonefly molt

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weird flies that work

The Stonefly Molt: Timing and Patterns for Trout

fly fishing, story, brown trout, stillwater, coho, smallmouth bass, carp, wiper, striped bass, how to fly fish

from the road

Story From The Road: A Year Spent Avoiding the Familiar

What happens when all of your favorite spots were suddenly black listed? A year chasing new water

carp

Blind Casting for Carp

What is the best approach when water is too murky, or you can't see any fish? Chances are slim, but never hopeless...

stillwater

Flies and Lines for Drop-Offs

Losing flies on drop offs? Not catching anything? It might be your choice of fly line..

fly fishing hoppers, attractors, dry flies, royal wulff, chubby chernobyl, which colors work and why?

Paid-members only

trout vision

Exploring LaFontaine's Color Theory of Attractors

this goes way beyond bright day, bright fly...

When fly fishing for muskie, northern pike, largemouth bass and smallmouth bass, are larger flies better for catching big fish?

science

Big Flies For Big Fish... right?

Big flies equals big fish, at least that's what we're all told. Is it actually true?

fly fishing nymphs, dry flies, wet flies, streamers, fly fishing trout, atlantic salmon, steelhead

tactics

Protecting A Fishery With Ineffective Angling?

Why would you limit your fly fishing tactics to help the fish? Hear me out...

Attractor dry flies, sparkle pupa, why do trout rise? Gary LaFontaine Dry Fly New Angles

trout vision Featured

Attracting Rises from Trout with Dry Flies

Wisdom from a forgotten book: Why do trout rise to a dry fly? Exploring LaFontaine's lost ideas on attractors

Nymphing with heavy flies or splitshot to get a trout's attention, ESN, indicator nymphing, fly fishing

nymphing Featured

Nymphing vs Turbulence

The nymphing angler is locked in a perennial quest to fish deeper because rivers fight back...

skunked

The Skunk Set Me Free: Reflections on Leaving the Nymphing Highway

Getting skunked, catching nothing, was never an acceptable outcome.... until I realized different

Releasing a pre-spawn Wyoming Brown Trout

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big fish

5 Tips for Landing Those Big Fish on Your Fly Rod

To be a true angler you need to experience the heartbreak of losing a big fish. Here's how to stack the odds in your favor so that doesn't happen...

how does trout memory work? they remember flies after large hatches like the salmonfly hatch

pattern hangover

Fish Memory and Pattern Hangover: How Trout Remember What They Eat

You missed the big hatch, but if you know a little about how trout brains work you might know that you're window of opportunity hasn't fully closed yet...

Eleven Mile Canyon stretch of the South Platte, Colorado, how do trout respond to fishing pressure?

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fish behavior

The Science of Rest: How Trout Recover from Angling Pressure

Do fish remember being caught? And how long would it take to reset the timid behavior of previously hooked fish throughout an entire fishery?

Wading and fly fishing the Gunnison River, Colorado, tactics for fly fishing rivers with low trout density

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behavior Featured

Tips for Streams with Low Fish Density

Lets take a look at how we approach rivers based on fish density and discuss what fishing rivers with fewer fish per mile have to offer

Hog of a rainbow trout getting released from a tailwater in Wyoming, rainbow trout, amy's ant fly pattern

terrestrials

Story From the Road: Amy's Ante and the Two-footer

Fish were rising everywhere, skimming #28 midges off the film of a deep run. Cows surrounded us as spectators for the feeding frenzy of a developing hatch. The water temperature was perfect...

Fly fishing for largemouth bass with bass poppers and streamers

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largemouth bass Featured

Understanding Warmwater Lakes: How Ecology Shapes Bass Fishing Success

In warmwater fly fishing, especially bass fishing, we often just throw poppers and streamers with little emphasis on understanding the reasoning for these tactics