Fishy Fridays by Confident Angler: One fly fishing tip, one fly to try, and one inspirational post to get you fired up to fish this weekend. 🎣
Hey Reader,
Do you feel that shift in the air? Here in Boise, things are starting to cool off a little. Kids are back in school. And I can feel fall right around the corner. That has me pumped.
If I had to pick a favorite season to fish, it’s probably fall. It has the right mix of everything I love: cooler weather, good river flows, steelheading opportunities, and trout that start eating more aggressively before winter.
I’ve been working hard on my next seasonal guide for fall, and it’s just about ready to go. You’ll be the first to hear about it when I launch in a couple weeks. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Anyway, let’s get into this week’s Fishy Friday.
Reach (Cast) for the Win​ I once heard this line: “It’s much harder to fix on the water what you could have fixed in the air.” That stuck with me. Ever since, I have tried to practice improving my cast in the air on every fishing trip.
One technique that changed things for me is the reach cast. It sounds fancy, but it’s actually quite simple. After you send your fly out, and before the line lands, reach your rod in the direction that offsets the current’s pull. Most of the time that’s upstream, but not always.
For example, if the river is flowing to your right, reach left (upstream). That way, when your fly lands, you have more line upstream of the fly, buying you extra drift time. But if you’re casting into a backeddy that’s pulling the opposite way, you may need to reach downstream instead.
That small move makes your fly drift longer and more naturally. Sometimes you won’t need to mend at all.
🪰 One Fly to Try This Weekend
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​Parachute Ant (Size 14–16, black or cinnamon)​ Late summer is a good time to fish with ant patterns. Trout are used to seeing them fall from banks and trees, and they’ll often take them when nothing else is happening on the surface.
The parachute version sits low in the water and looks like a real ant that’s stuck in the water. It’s a simple fly, but it works. On warm afternoons, especially near grassy banks or overhanging trees, it can be the pattern that turns a quiet stretch into a productive one.
📸 One Inspiring Post
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This quick video got me pumped for steelhead season. The cast is clean and tight to the bank. The drift hangs right in the money zone. Then comes the slow lift of the rod from a very experienced angler and the sudden surface blow-up of a steelhead.
It took me straight back to those drizzly Oregon days, standing in the rain and waiting for the river to come alive.