First Tuesday Tips

Tip 1: Fish Where the Guides Don't Take Their Clients

(This is Tip 93 in Skip's book, 365 Fly Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish)

This First Tuesday Tips: Tip 1 applies to Trout in Streams, Trout in Lakes, Largemouth Bass in Lakes, Smallmouth Bass in Lakes, Smallmouth Bass in Streams, and Panfish in Lakes.

First Tuesday Tips, Tip 1: Fish Where the Guides Don't Take Their ClientsI had to stay low and cast quietly in order to present my fly to the nervous trout that were holding in this soft, shallow side channel. (Note the river to the left.)
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)




First Tuesday Tips, Tip 1: Fish Where the Guides Don't Take Their ClientsIt worked! It’d be a rare client a guide would put this water and on these trout. Guides want steady action for their clients, and some fine fishing places like this offer only action that’s slow, demanding, and uncertain. Awfully fun, though.
(photo ©Carol Ann Morris)

Fishing guides and their clients have the same right to the water you and I have. But we needn’t all share the same parts of it.

Example. Two weeks ago Carol and I hiked upstream from a public boat launch on a large Montana river to fish some braided water. A drift boat would occasionally come through, but always through the largest braid, where there was room for a boat. None of the guides parked their boats to walk their clients up to fish the creek-size braids we fished. But those little braids were good. In one I landed an 18-inch rainbow and a bunch of cutthroats of various lengths while Carol happily took photos.

Guides often ignore braids because (1) when drifting rivers, guides have to hit their takeout points on time and can’t afford to dally, (2) braids can be tricky to fish, and (3) a little braid isn’t going to satisfy a client who came to fish a large river.

We also found a small, tight, deep eddy with trout rising among patches of white foam. An awkward spot to fish and a tough one to figure out. We finally realized we had to just keep putting the fly in the foam until a trout happened onto it. But would a guide set a client on that water and expect that client to make cast after cast to the same small area until something happened, while complex currents tried constantly to put on drag the fly? A smart guide wouldn’t—most clients would fumble the spot, or grow bored with it.

Rivers, lakes, trout, bass—there are typically all sorts of awkward or difficult or challenging places holding plenty of fish that guides and their clients don’t bother. So go to those places and bother some fish.

Click here to hear Skip's interviews on popular podcasts...


Click here to hear Carol's interview on photography
(How to Capture What You See) on AskAboutFlyFishing.com...


*Announcements*



Skip has an essay in Big Sky Journal's annual Fly Fishing issue, called "Montana Hoppers: the Princess and the Brute" released February 1, 2023. Skip rewrote it a bit; I painted and illustrated it here, on our website. Here's the link on our web page to check it out:


Click here to read Skip's essay Montana Hoppers: The Princess and the Brute...



Skip's latest books:

Top 12 Dry Flies for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them, is now available on Amazon as an ebook...check it out! Click on the links below to go to the information page on Top 12 Dry Flies (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page...)


Click here to get more information about

Top 12 Dry Flies for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page)...

Top 12 Nymphs for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them, 2nd Edition, originally published as an e-book only, is now available on Amazon as a paperback...check it out! Click on the links below to go to the information page on Top 12 Nymphs (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page...)

Click here to get more information about

Top 12 Nymphs for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them (2nd Edition). . .



Click here to get more information about Skip's e-book,

500 Trout Streams...

Skip's latest paperback book:

Click here to get more information about Skip's latest book,

365 Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish...



Print Skip's chart for FREE:

Skip Morris's Trout-Fly Proportion Chart

Go to Skip Morris's Trout Fly Proportion Chart






Skip's Predator is available to buy...

Skip's ultra-popular Predator—a hit fly for bluegills and other panfishes and largemouth bass (also catches smallmouth bass and trout)—is being tied commercially by the Solitude Fly Company.

Skip Morris's Predator

The Predator


CLICK HERE to learn more about or to purchase the Predator...






Learn to Tie Skip's Predator

Do you want to tie the Predator?

Skip Morris's Predator

Tying the Predator

Skip shows you how to tie it on his YouTube Channel link, listed below:

CLICK HERE to see Skip's detailed video on how to tie the Predator...