Fish the seams, it seems.

So much water, where should I fish?

Fishing large waters can be somewhat intimidating. The shear volume of water flowing, those large boulders and the unseen drops and holes can make it a challenge to locate fish. When I fish such rivers I like to stop and give a good look to the way the waters are flowing. Rivers have varying speeds and create these seams that can be seen on the surface. Sometimes these seams can be readily detected and other times they are very subtle. The currents below the surface in these seams provide fish a holding spot for fish that may be moving upstream, they also provide an ideal place to ambush bait fish and insects that will get caught in the various currents.

To fish these seams can be a bit of a challenge because of the various speeds at which the river flows. To try and get that nice natural drift with a dry fly can be almost impossible and requires a lot of line mending. But the streamer and wet fly angler these seams can be a delight and very productive.

When a streamer is cast and allowed to drift through a seam the varying speeds of the river currents make the fly rush through at times and will make the fly look to be a darting bait fish trying to escape. Then there are times when the current will cause the streamer to swing through very fast and suddenly hesitate as it meets another current representing a tired minnow. These movements do not go unseen by the trout and a hard strike usually takes place.

There a 3 easily seen currents in this section of the Farmington river. I fished this section the other day and hooked several beautiful trout. Can you see the seams?

A wild Farmy brown, taken in a seam.

So the next time your fishing a larger river look for these seams and give them a try.