NEW FEATURE VIDEO! “DEEP INTO IT” – Big Browns in HEAVY BUSH”
In this week’s video we take you to a section of a side channel from a larger river along with a smaller tributary stream close by. The side channel is one we’ve seen change dramatically through the years of fishing it.
Dave first poked about it on Christmas Eve back in 2007 while we spent Christmas with friends. He came home so jacked up that one of his Google Earth “wish list” waters was LOADED with browns, landing 3doz+. There had been a major flood through the lower valley the winter prior and it was an easy to walk through stretch of water with smooth, wide open casting lanes and accessing one location to another was smooth.
Fast forward to today and the willows, bush lawyer, matagouri, blackberry, endless vines and copious weeds/plants of all kinds have exploded through the drought years to the point of almost choking this part of the river out from being fishable. We can’t access the lower and the middle are simply a mish-mash of willow and vine that can’t be accessed. There are a few spots where we’d be better off turning ourselves into a couple of pigs to explore it more easily. The tough and tight surroundings is also the challenge that draws us to it! The idea is to embrace what can unfold if you simply try.
What You Will Learn:
- Choosing your position when fishing bushy streams impacts not only your presence to a fish, but also your ability to get a solid hook set.
- Just how slow you need to move when you encounter cruising, cycling trout
- What type of bank and in-stream characteristics define a prime lie that will hold a trout
- Careful observation of a trout’s cruising zone can give you a second chance if your first hook up doesn’t stick
- A deliberate choice of where to place your fly for a cruising brown gives a higher percentage of hook ups
- Applying the “1 o’clock can be anywhere” rule will allow you to cast to more trout in heavy bushy streams and get the accuracy you’re looking for