Sometimes I think blind fishing is a blessing. I’m not sure about you, but sight-fishing to spooky trout still has a tendency to make me fall apart (before even making the cast!) For me, it’s the fear of missed opportunity—that I’ve got one shot and I better make it good.
Big fish don’t get big by accident. They’re wary, experienced, spooky and often pressured. I’ve spent hours finding and sneaking up on a monster brown, only to have it bolt before even unhooking my fly. It happened on a fly fishing trip to the Snowy Mountains… I sat there bewildered wondering how it knew. Could it feel vibration? See my shadow? Glimpse something in its peripheral? Heck, I even started to wonder if it could somehow sense my intention.
And it’s not just the big fish, the little guys have it too. So I find myself often wondering, what changes do I need to make when it comes to targeting spooky, educated and highly pressured fish?
It’s questions like the ones I had in the mountains that often make me “gun-shy”, so I turned to one of the most analytical and “fishy” anglers I know: Josh Nugent. You may know Josh through the fishing world (or maybe even through our Trout 101 class), but he and I agreed that we needed to put together something… deeper. Something for advanced anglers. Truthfully, I was looking for a class made for someone like me and, quite likely, you. So here we are.
I couldn’t decide on a favourite chapter to share, so I thought I’d simply start at the beginning and share Chapter One where Josh starts by explaining why 10% of anglers catch 90% of the fish.
I hope you find these tips as interesting as I do!
Enjoy!
~April Vokey
Purchase Josh’s Spooky Trout class here.
In this class, Josh covers:
– Observing Patiently and Patiently Observing
– Where Do Big Spooky Fish Live?
– Approaching the Fish
– Gear Setup
– Fly Selection
– Casting
– Line Management
– Refusals
– Loop Shape
– Fighting Large Educated Fish
– And more!
If you’re a Founding or Premium+Masterclass member, you’ll find this class in your Masterclass dashboard.
If you’re a Premium member, shoot us an email and we’ll tell you how to access it.
