977 | The Small-Fly Playbook: 14 Tips from Ed Engle

0:00Today we're pulling out one of the Wet Fly Swing Podcasts greatest hits and bringing back my conversation with Ed Angle from 2019 on Fishing Small Flies. I went back through this episode and there are a bunch of tips and tricks here that are as useful today as ever, especially if you're fishing technical trout water tail waters or those situations where the fish are locked in on size 20s, 22s and maybe even above. This is the Wet Fly Swing Podcast where I show you the best places it traveled to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to fish species we all love. Today we're going to do a little solo episode of the top tips from this episode and we're going to shed light on this as we go. We're still in our summer break getting ready to head out of it today so we're going to be locking this one down and we will have a link in the show notes if you want to listen to the full episode. It's from a long time ago, 2018 which was in the second year of doing the podcast so I

1:02feel like I've grown a lot on my interviewing skills but if you want to hear that one you can check it out and listen to how far we've come. I think it's kind of fun to look at the podcast and how it's all out there and so we're going to get into a lot on today's fly size, choosing the right fly. We're going to talk nymphs, nymphs, wets and dries today. We're going to kind of cover everything on fish and tiny flies. So without further ado, let's get into it. This is the Ed Angle Summary episode and greatest hits, top tips. All right, here we go. All right, we're going to zip through these. These are the 14 top tips on fish and small flies with this is the Ed Angle Summary. And if you want to also check out these types of tips, we're going to talk more about where you can get into these at the end. With number 14, what Ed says is don't fish, small flies than you need. Ed defines small flies as roughly size 18 and smaller and he has fish down to size 32 but says you don't need to go that small. You go tiny because the trout are eating tiny insects and do not treat smaller as automatically

2:04better. All right, number 13, the number 13 top tip on fish and tiny flies Ed says keep small fly patterned simple. Ed says these small flies are fundamentally basic. There is only so much material you can put on a tiny hook. His winter midge example can be size 22 and just a black thread body, a rib and a dub thorax, super basic size and basic profile matter more than complexity on the small flies. Number 12, don't automatically reach for a longer leader. Ed prefers the shortest leader he can get away with. He often uses around 9 to 10 feet and he says very long leaders can be hard to handle. He also says make sure to use extra strength when the situation man but not by default. All right, number 11, number 11 adjust your hook set on a down stream dry. We did a lot of this fishing the Missouri with on-demarcal lodge adjusting our hook set. But basically it's a part of this thing. The fish rises and what Ed says is you got to use the downstream presentation on selective trout. So that's the first thing you want to present the fly so they see the fly first.

3:08The fly reaches the trout before the rest of the system and when the fish eats what he says is hesitate before setting and he compares this to like fishing the wet fly. So if you're on the wet fly swing, you don't necessarily lift up right away as soon as you see you give it kind of a second there and then you set the hook. All right, number 10, swing a small wet flies at rising trout. So right here on the wet flies. So again, we're talking a little about wets, dries and nymphs today and it says cast small wet flies at rising fish. He sometimes swings them through the current. He likes unweighted flies because they are more active. We're going to talk more about this as we go today. And then also this gives you another way to imitate an emerging insect near the surface. So if they're coming up, it's not necessarily going to be all dries. I think that when you're on it, that's great. But Ed definitely makes sure to have some of those wet flies in the box. Let on-demarcal lodge give you the Montana fly fishing experience you deserve. The gin clear waters of the Missouri River offer a world class experience with one of

4:11the finest rainbow trout and brown trout fisheries in the world. You can head over to ondemarcalodge.com to fish one of the great trout streams in the country. Pescador on the fly offers a full range of fly fishing gear for any angler at any budget. The L-ray G6 is the most packable high performance fly rod on the market performing like a four-piece rod by with unmatched portability in six pieces. Never fly without your G6. Discover the L-ray series and more at pescadoronthefly.com. Alright, we're working it down here. Number nine at Angle. This is from one of our greatest episodes of all time on the podcast from 2019. It says fish swimming nips without movement. This is now getting into nips a little bit. There's some great tips here. He points out that like for example, BWO nips are swimmers and he likes to kind of use more of an active imitation. You may lift or activate the fly and do not assume every small nymph has to be dead drifted. So we hear that a lot about dead drifting it. But Rua you want to on some of these get some extra movement.

5:12Alright, number eight. Use a weighted fly to let an unweighted nymph move. It says he wants an unweighted fly somewhere in the rig so it's not going to be all down and dirty. He uses a weighted fly to get the system down. That's the first part of it. The trail is an unweighted nymph about 18 inches behind and the trailing fly moves up and down in the water column like a swimming nymph. This is pretty cool. This is actually some of the stuff we were doing. We were nipping again on the Missouri. We were doing the same thing. We had two flies on and we were nipping and because there was a lot of vegetation we were staying higher in the water column. So we weren't using a lot of weight but we did have a trailing fly and they were hitting both actually both of those flies throughout the day. So another great tip. Let's go. Let's keep this moving. Number seven. We're working down to the number one top tips from the episode 59 way back in 2019 as we're on our summer break here. Number seven. Read the trout's vertical position before the cast. This is pretty cool. So when you can see the fish, Ed watches where they're sitting in the water column.

6:15And a fish that is suspended or elevated is probably actually feeding and a spook trout may drop down to the bottom and sit there. So and the fish's position will help you tell if it's worth targeting. So again, if you're seeing those fish coming up or in near the surface, that's giving you some good tell you need. All right. Number six. Make sure you can actually see the tiny dry fly. This is a big one. And again, when you can't see it, it makes it hard to know when your fly is getting hit. And Ed says knowing roughly where it is is not enough. You can actually be a millisecond late on a hook set and miss the fish. Visual tracking becomes more important as the fly gets more. And some of the dries we were using again on the Missouri this year. We were using kind of with a post that had some color. So they're easy to stick out and see. So that's another thing you can do. All right. Number five. Number five. Make the fly the first thing in trout seas. And this is what we're talking about about that downstream presentation. So make sure your fly lands and it's going to float down to the fish.

7:16The fish is going to see the fly before anything else. And his goal is specific. The first thing the trout seas should be the fly. So pretty simple on that one. Number four. Build slack into the presentation. So this is a big one because if you just make a cast that current is going to take up the slack and it's going to suck that fly under. So you want to make some sort of a slackline cast. Well, that's a reach cast. Parachute pile cast. Escarves. Lots of different things here. But you need a slack cast to do it. So what we are doing, we were fishing on the Missouri there. We were making a downstream presentation and then doing a reach cast. And that was putting enough slack into it that, you know, there was no slack. There was no pull on the line. And Ed says this is a big part of getting you to the next level. All right. Number three. We're three more to go here. Ed says let the trout rise. Tell you whether your presentation is right. It is not judge a dry fly presentation only by whether the trout eats. He knows is how the fish takes the artificial.

8:16Sometimes a trout takes the fly differently almost as if the fly bothers it. And his ideal is for the trout to take the artificial exactly the way it takes the natural. Stonefly nets, handcrafts, wooden landing nets, fly boxes and real seats in Little Rock, Arkansas using premium hardwoods and burls sourced from landowners across the United States. Every piece is built by hand combining traditional craftsmanship with the durability anglers need on the water. And these aren't just pieces of gear. They're the kind of tools that become part of your fishing story and stay with you for lifetime. You can check in with stonefly nets right now. Just head over to stoneflynets.com. Check them out right now and get started today. Fishhound Expeditions offers world-class fly fishing right off Alaska's incredible road system. Whether you're a seasoned angler or just start now, they're expert guides, insure and unforgettable adventure. Look your trip today before spots fill up and experience Alaska's diversity like never before.

9:17Check them out right now. That's fishhoundexpoditions.com. All right, number two. Getting close and this is number two is getting close. Get as close as you can without spooking the fish. So this is a big one. I think trying to make that hero cast from a long ways away is probably not the best way to do this. Ed pushes and puts heavy emphasis on getting close. He uses position and a lower profile rather than automatically casting further. He has hooked trout from only six to eight feet away and the goal is close distance without changing the trance behavior. So stealth is key on all these. The closer you can get, the better chance you're going to have to remember that. And the number one tip from Ed Angle, episode 59 is match size before anything else. So with small flies when your fish in tiny flies, it's very important to start really with size is number one. And it says you should get a natural insect in your hand, figure out its actual size, match that first and then color and silhouette come after the size.

10:18Whatever's in your box that is closest to the natural size is where Ed starts. So you have any idea, if you think your fish and trichos, for example, like we were, then you can kind of kind of guesstimate what size they're going to be and go with that whatever you have in your box. Start there and make it good. Alright, those are the tips from those are the tips from episode 59. I hope you enjoyed that one. We are still kind of on our summer break. So we're mixing in some of these episodes today. But if you enjoy this one, if you want to take the conversation further, you can actually see on YouTube, we're doing some of these summary videos on YouTube over there. So if you want to check these out, you can do that right now at wetflyswing.com slash YouTube. Check out our channel. We love a subscribe there. And yeah, that's kind of what we got today. If you want to check and listen to this episode, you can do it right now. Go to episode 59 of the podcast. Like I said, it was seven years ago. So it's been quite a while ago.

11:19So my interview style isn't quite as refined polished. And so I think that if you want to hear that, just understand that. And that's kind of the cool thing though. All that content is still out there. And these are still some of the most listened to episodes as well. So we got plenty of stuff coming up next week. As always, we are doing a lot of episodes every week. We talk in next week, we're talking the Mirror Mishii River. We're talking Permit and we've got the, we're talking Indiana Steelhead Fish in next week. And we're talking planning a trip. Tim Camisa is back. What a big week coming next week. So I hope you enjoyed this little quick short snippet episode. If you're liking these, if you have any feedback, send me an email, Dave at www.weatflyswing.com. We'd love to hear from you. We're pumping out the podcast episodes and we're keeping it going strong. So definitely if you get a chance, check in with me if you can. I just want to wish you a good afternoon, a good evening or morning. And we'll look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

12:21Talk to you then.