Fly Fishing - New Jersey, Raritan River (South Branch): Desperate For Help

evan · Location: Cortlandt Manor, NY

Now that school's over, im heading back out to the spectacular waters of my home, one of which being the South Branch of the Raritan River in New Jersey. A few of you guys have hopefully fished this water around Kenlockwood Gorge and may have been surprised at how demanding this water can be. The slightest amount of drag within your cast will definitely deter your targeted fish. About a year ago, i visited the South Branch for the first time. Ignorance, impatience and a small amount of knowledge was all i had to fish with and of course, i got skunked. Even though it was about 80 degrees, these fish were feeding immensely because the water stays constant all year round and contains an abundance of aquatic invertabrates, especially caddis, small mayfly and midges. (not a large population of baitfish though). As i scanned the crystal clear waters of this prominent river, i spotted multiple trout focusing on particular food specimens on the surface or in the depths. One of which, a small brook trout, rose to my hopper but i missed him and another large brown trout would not even glance at any of my offers. Whether it was a hopper on the surface, an ant in the film, an RS2, a BH Pheasant tail or a red midge pupa, he refused and only ate something which i could not see. That day, all i could appreciate was the green scenery and blue sky. Oh yeah, and two flyfishermen passed me by with their heads down as i asked for help Mad

I hate when any flyfishermen does that. Anyway, i was wondering if you guys can suggest any flies or techniques to use for this river in early summer.

jeremy · Location: Portland, Maine

Hi Evan,

Super highly selective trout are definately not my stong point. I like to fish for them and do but it is definately not a strong point of mine - especially when it comes to patterns out of "the norm" such as caddis, hendriksons etc.. and especially the super small stuff. I do have a few really good friends who love to fish super technical trout, truly understand entemology and have spent a lot of time on in "super selective" trout waters such as the delaware, silver creek, battenkill etc... . I have learned A LOT from them, but I am in no real position to offer advise on "highly selective trout" fishing. It sounds like the water you are describing and the questions you are asking are often what I find myself asking when I go to the delaware river in New York and other similar river systems. I can tell you that on the times that I have been to the Delaware River it has been a similar experience to yours and VERY humbling. Trout rising all around me and I can't get one of them to touch my flies. I remember, specifically, an evening 3 years ago on the delaware that I will never forget .. there were bugs coming off everywhere and trout rising literally next to my boots and I casted every fly in my box and couldn't trick one of them .. then, one of my friends hooks up and says, "they are eating spinners" .. So anyway, I appreciate your question ... and will shoot an email to Kory, waterwhippa and tom who spend lots of time on the Delaware River and other similar river systems on both the east and west coast fishing to super selective trout .. perhaps they have a few suggestions for you. And, perhaps someone else reading this will have some suggestions for you too .. The best thing I can do is NOT offer you any advise on this subject matter, because I could use some help myself in the department. Stay tune, I am sure they and will have some good advise for you (and me). Good luck.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Evan,
I haven't fished the river that you are referring to but have heard of it. I have however, fished a lot of places where the fish are extremely selective and difficult to fool including the delaware, the farmington, silver creek, henry's fork, the green, the provo, lees ferry and many others. Most of these places have a plethora of different bugs coming off at the same time and it can be difficult to determine not only what bug the fish are feeding on but what stage of the bug. There are some things that you can do that will help you out in this situation. That doesn't mean it will be easy and that doesn't mean you will catch a lot of fish. There are times when it seems you can do no wrong and will catch a lot of fish in these places but in general the fish are selective for a reason and you have to do a lot of things correctly to fool them. There are days and places where a good day means that you landed one good sized fish all day.

Some things that you can try that help me out:

1. Pick one fish in particular to target. Even if there are several rising, it is far more effective to focus on one fish until you either get him to eat your fly or he quits feeding.
2. Try to watch and see if you can see individual insects floating over the fish and see if it actually takes any of them. If you cannot see what he is feeding on, it may be that the fish is taking emergers just under the surface. You can use a small fish aquarium net or seine and hold it in the film capturing what he is eating and try to imitate it. I did this in the past, but now just watch the water at my feet until I can see the insects but frequently wish i still carried a seine. This can be very helpful even when fish aren't visible to find out what type of insects are drifting in the water to get an idea of what the fish have to choose from.
3. Determine the fish's rhythm. Frequently fish feed in a rhythm not taking every bug but taking them at the same interval. Try to time your cast so that your fly floats over the next time the fish rises.
4. Get a drag free drift. This is critical. If your fly is even slightly dragging going a hair faster or slower than the natural insects, they usually won't even look at it even if it is a perfect imitation. This is easier said than done and there are many tricks to doing this that can't be explained easily. Throwing extra slack and mending and feeding line all aid in this effort. The key is to watch your fly and compare it to debris or other insects and make sure it is floating at the exact same speed. If it is not, try to determine what is causing it to drag and correct it.
5. Once you have figured out what you think the fish is feeding on, position yourself upstream and across from the fish. Make your cast at a 45 degree angle downstream (or close to it) so the fish sees the fly first and not the leader.
6. When you make false casts to dry your fly or aim, try to do them away from the fish so you don't alert him to your presence. Even if the shadow of your line doesn't go over the fish, the spray from it can cause a disturbance and spook the fish.
7. After you have made a few presentations without a take, stop casting and make sure the fish is still rising. I like to let them get comfortable and feed again as many times your fly drifting over them alerts them that something is out of place.
8. If you have tried several imitations of the same insect that the fish seems to be feeding on but still can't get a take, try something different. Either a fly that imitates another insect that is or has been hatching or something that the fish is likely to see. This only occasionally works on selective, high pressured fish as they are used to getting fished to so key on one stage of one insect and rarely divert from that behavior.
9. If you have tried all of this and still can't get the fish to take throw a streamer at him and he will either slam it or spook and you can move on to the next target.

These are all tips based on technique that I use. I didn't go into tackle such as leaders and tippet, which should be matched to the size of the fly and the water clarity and type.

Hope that some of these tips at least help out. I can tell you one thing, I love fishing for large selective fish that are visibly feeding. It is very challenging and requires a lot of skill and a lot of patience but as a result is extremely rewarding and extremely fun!

SperryWater · Location: Allentown, PA

Hey Evan,

I fished the KLG section of the SBR this evening and had a blast catching some of the fiesty wild bows in the river. I was introduced to the river by Aaron Jasper when I attend his Euro nymphing clinic held on the SBR in March. I've been doing pretty well there every since.

I tend to focus on the fast pocket water, which as you know there is plenty of, and do well with wooly buggers and hare's ear nymphs. There is a pretty healthy population of stone flies in the river, which is why I suspect the buggers work well.

There is a ton of information on fishing the SBR on Troutpredator.com (Aaron's site, not to detract from this one).

evan · Location: Cortlandt Manor, NY

Thanks for the info. But i have a few questions regarding your replies; when you said "fish's rhythym", do you mean the number of insects that past the fish between each rise? Also, the last time i visited the river, my rig possessed a 5x or 6x leader of only nine feet attached to the dropper and about two feet of tippet of 6x-7x. Is that too short for trout as selective as these? And the RS2 i fish with only the cdc breaking the surface while the body and tail flows just below. Is that a correct method? Anyway, thanks again for your advice. I know it will come in good use.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Evan,
Been on vacation fishing, sorry for the late response Smile

By fish's rhythm I mean watch the fish when it feeds. Frequently, when there are a lot of insects to choose from fish will develop a "rhythm" where they don't take every insect floating by. They take one and then wait for a certain amount of time and take another. If you watch the fish, you can see that it will come up at the same interval every time. If you figure out when that is, you can try to make your fly float over the fish the next time it is about to feed again "timing" the rise. When there are fewer insects, they may not be in a rhythm as there is less to choose from so they take every insect. When there are several different types of insects, and the fish is keyed on a particular one you can try to figure out the rhythm and then see which type of insect is about as common as the frequency of the fish's rises. Hope that makes sense as it sounds a little confusing.

As far as leader and tippet, that should be about right. I fish anywhere from a 9-12 foot leader of which 18-24 inches is tippet. I match the tippet size to the fly size and the conditions. Bigger flies, less selective fish, faster water, off color water all mean heavier tippet. Smaller flies, selective fish, slower water, clear water all mean lighter tippet. There is no rule for an exact tippet size for all conditions you vary according to these variables. Hope this helps!

evan · Location: Cortlandt Manor, NY

thanks again for the info, kory. unfortunately, with all this rain and upcoming plans, it will be at least a week before i can get to the water. But whenever i go, ill take everybody's advice with me.