Flyfishing For Trout Tips Short Leader: No use in trying to cast 12 ft. leaders, unless you're fishing a stream that is wide open and the water is really low and clear. Otherwise I tend to use 7' and shorter leaders nothing bigger than 4x, most of the time 6x. By keeping your leader shorter your accuracy will improve and you'll spend more time fishing and less time getting out of the trees. This is true most of the time, but in low clear water conditions mostly during the summer months a short leader can spook fish. This is the only time of the year that I use a long leader 9' or longer, but still trying to stay as small in diameter as possible. You'll need to experiment to find how short of a leader you can use and not spook the fish and also how long of a leader you can get by with and not stay in the trees.
Dappling By dappling I'm referring to the process of basically just having your leader out of the end of your rod and dropping your fly into the hole. To do this you must keep in mind how close you are to the fish and be even more sneaky. I dapple mostly on brookie streams that have large rocks for me to hide behind. You'll be amazed at how much a 8" brookie can fight with only your leader out. Stealth is the key to dappling, stay low and hidden at all times. I dapple a lot in the spring when the streams are running a little faster than normal. I do this to keep my line out of the water to avoid drag on my fly. I dapple my fly on the slow water pockets behind rocks, logs and anything else that will create a slower water pocket.
Using Rocks and Taking Your Time To fish small streams you must be able and willing to use rocks to lay your line on in order to get good drag free drifts. Feel free to cast over a few dry rocks to get your fly into the right spot. Keep in mind that by using rocks you usually end up with slack in your line which can keep you from being able to set the hook as quickly. To compensate for this I usually set the hook by lifting my rod and pulling the line in at the same time. Basically picking up the slack line by lifting the rod and setting the hook by a quick yank on the line. Take your time when approaching a hole and look for rocks that you can lay your line on to get a good drift the first cast. Most small streams don't give you many chances to get your cast right, so take your time and get a good cast the first time. You'll very seldom get a perfect cast so a cast that is close to where you wanted it, let it float. By yanking your fly back and recasting you'll scare the fish more often then not. Try to avoid false casting!!
Roll Cast To me the most important part of small stream fishing! You must be able to roll cast and to roll cast with small tight loops. I'm not going to go into the basics of roll casting, there are many good source for learning how to roll cast. Learn to roll cast and don't be afraid to roll into those place where most people wouldn't consider fishing. Many times that is where the big 'uns are hiding.
Stalking-Staying Low Small streams here in Western North Carolina require that you stay low and stalk the trout if you want big fish and big numbers of fish. Don't just think about this when you're on the stream but think about it when getting dressed to go fishing and when buying clothes that you'll fish in. A bright hat is the worse thing you can wear, along with a bright t-shirt. Keep your clothing green, brown and tan and you'll have half of the stalking taken care of. Staying low when approaching the hole is important also. Staying behind the fish give you a big advantage! For this reason I fish upstream always. Keep out of his sight and pay attention to your shadow. Don't cast a shadow over a fish you want to catch, even though he might not take off he still won't be nearly as likely to feed.
Moving On Once you've fished a hole for a few minutes and cast to the major spots that you think a trout may be holding in don't waste your time. This is a judgment call, some holes require more casts and more time but if you've made a couple of splashy casts and/or hooked a few limbs above the hole, there is no use to keep fishing the hole. Once the fish spooks it takes them awhile to move back into their feeding lanes. So just move on and try the next hole. Keep it Simple : Trout fishing isn't rocket science!!! You don't have to know the Latin names for all the insects on the water to catch fish. Try to fish areas that look productive, places where fish can get food without having to fight major currents. There are many books written on trout fishing but basically you must figure out what types of water the trout are hanging in and fish them. You don't need 10,000 different fly patterns in 20 different sizes. For most of the streams in Western North Carolina a small selection of flies that I have listed on my flies page will produce fish. You don't need to spend $1000's of dollars on equipment and hours in classes. Just read a little to get the basics and then get out there and FISH!!