The late Charlie Brooks was one of my angling heroes and I really enjoyed fishing with him. Brooks was only interested in catching Big Trout.
One cold fall morning as we sat in his home west of West Yellowstone I asked him if he thought a particular stretch of the Firehole River would be good to fish that afternoon. Brooks, who knew the whole Firehole River very well, said, “That’s beautiful country but the only large trout in that part of the stream hold under the west bank…you’ll have to dig them out.” That afternoon I was on that section of the Firehole. Following Brooks’ advice and put an Olive Strymph size 8 on my 4X leader. By drifting this back below the undercut bank I caught many large trout.
Later that fall I used the same ploy on Big Spring Creek in Pennsylvania with great success. I’ve come to call this technique a “Back Up Drift.” I position myself on the bank of the undercut 15 feet of the beginning of the undercut. Staying well back from the bank to avoid scaring the trout I flip the Strymph 15 feet out and use a high fly rod to guide the fly into the proper current that will pull it back under the bank. With this tight line I sneak down the bank prospecting the whole bank. It works!
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