A vast variety of methods are employed on small stillwaters around the UK to put fish in the back of the net. Pulling. Washing lines. The bung. But in the gin clear stillwaters of Southern England, one method consistently dominates the catch reports for specimen fish. This method is stalking. In this article, I will try to provide a comprehensive guide. I will explain what stalking on small stillwaters is, why you should be using it, and how to use this method to transform your catch rates on small stillwaters.
Stalking capitalizes on the well-known adage: ‘a fish seen is a fish nearly caught’. It is essentially a developed form of sight fishing. Many different patterns can be used, but there are overarching techniques that sum up this method. The ability of stalking to catch any fish, from fresh stockies to wary giants, and even sluggish fish that are not actually feeding, makes it a method that every angler should have in their arsenal.
Why is stalking on small stillwaters special?
In the right time, at the right place, every method will catch fish. However, stalking can offer you opportunities that are unrivaled by any other strategy. Here are a few of them.
- The satisfaction. There are few things as satisfying as deliberately targeting a fish, stalking that fish, and landing that fish, and the visual element of stalking makes it a really exciting method.
- The ability to target special fish. Stalking is great because you can hand pick the fish you want to target. This is especially useful on catch and kill waters, where you can make the most out of your limited fish.
- Increases the potential of the margins. For intermediate anglers wanting to progress on any small water, this hugely increases your potential catch rate as you can effectively harness the power of the margins. So often I see anglers shoot out a long cast into the centre of the water, neglecting to fish the margins and missing out on opportunities as a result. Don’t let that be you.
- Ideal for beginners. Stalking is a great tactic for beginners because of the minimal kit required. This makes it very accessible to those with less tackle. It is also a great confidence builder. I remember endless hours spent casting into a murky ripple, wondering ‘are there actually any fish here?’ With stalking, you can be sure that you are covering fish. For the same reason, it is a great way to learn about fish behavior. At short range it’s easier to focus on your presentation and understand how this presentation is affecting the fish. It’s a valuable asset for any beginner trying to up their catch rates.
Are you convinced yet? If you want to learn more about this devastating method, we’ll now look at how to incorporate this tactic into your armory.
Kit
One of the most important aspects of any successful day is your kit. Fortunately, when stalking, the kit required is simple and minimalistic.
The rod
While highly successful stalkers like Malcolm Hunt have advocated for lighter weight rods, such as a 9ft 4#, I believe that a 9ft 6# rod will be more useful. This is especially true for catch and release. While a lighter rod can protect your tippet by flexing more, over the course of the fight it significantly tires the fish. This is because it’s impossible to ‘bully in’ a fish. While this is not problematic in catch and kill waters, on catch and release wasters, it is. This is especially true in summer. It can result in high fish mortality because of the extended duration of the fight. For this reason, I prefer to fish heavier rods.
The other obvious benefit of a heavier rod is your power over the fish. While it is very fun to fight fish on lighter rods, the control is very limited. If a big brown decides to run for a snag, it will be difficult to stop him. A heavier rod gives you the option of applying more force on a fish, which is often necessary when battling a specimen fish.
Visibility
But before you can fight the fish, you need to see them first. You need a peaked cap and a good pair of polaroids. Both of these help to reduce the glare of the sun on the water’s surface. This helps your vision to penetrate through the bright upper layers of the lake. In order to improve your visibility, use shadows as you can see fish better in them due to the lack of glare.
Line & leader
In terms of the rig setup, stalking is mercifully simple. A floating line is all that will be required. We will mostly be fishing at close range, and heavier flies are used to obtain depth rather than a sinking line. However, you cannot skimp on your leader. Stalking targets big fish, and they will exploit any weakness in your setup. For example, big browns often violently shake their heads immediately after being hooked. This risks snapping any subpar leader.
To prevent this catastrophe from happening, invest in soft, premium quality fluorocarbon. There are times when standard fluorocarbon will suffice. However, in this case, I believe the upper echelons of fluorocarbon (e.g. Fulling Mill Masterclass) are essential. Once again, leader setup is not complex. The leader must be long enough to give a good presentation, but equally the angler must be able to control the fly. A long leader can damage the connection between the angler and the fly (more on this later). 12ft would be a reliable length to start with. As you increase in skill, the length of leader you can fish with this method effectively will increase.
Everything else
When stalking, the angler will be highly mobile with 80-90% of the day spent wandering around the water looking for fish rather than blindly casting. As a result, you will really need to scale down your kit. All you will need is an easily portable net, a small box, and general accessories (e.g. nippers, forceps, potentially a priest). A waistcoat or a sling pack is ideal to store this reduced equipment. Just remember to avoid wearing bright colours or shiny objects (e.g. metal wristwatches or other highly reflective surfaces). These will be visible to fish. Drab and camouflaged clothing is best, allowing you to be stealthy when hunting wary fish.
Method
Firstly, you need to pick your fish and put yourself in a position to stalk it.
The ideal scenario is that you see the fish, but the fish doesn’t see you. Keep a low profile and use bank side foliage to obscure your silhouette. Breaking up your outline like this will spook fewer fish. Also, be very conscious of your shadow, especially when the sun is behind you. Keep it as far away from the fish as possible. When moving into position, move slowly and quietly. Sudden movements will startle fish lying in shallow water, as fish are used to the bank side being motionless—apart from natural swaying trees and birdlife. Therefore they associate unusual movement with danger.
The second way to prevent spooking fish is to minimize your casting and maximize your accuracy.
Try to reduce your false casts; line flying through the air can agitate fish. When casting in dense foliage, each excessive false cast drastically increases the risk of hooking vegetation. Not fun! Instead, economize your casting to get the best accuracy you can. A misplaced fly is very likely to spook a fish; so, only cast when you are ready to make sure that your fly lands in the right place. If it is too close to the fish, it will spook, and if it is too far away, the fish will probably not intercept it. I often see anglers frantically rushing their casts to target a big fish; this only results in inaccuracy, unnecessary disturbance, and lost opportunities. Be methodical, careful, and clinical: you don’t want to miss out on these fish, trust me!
Now you have sighted your fish, and not spooked it. Congratulations! But before you cast to the fish, stop and observe it for a while. Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. See which direction the fish is moving and take time to judge its depth to make sure you have all the information you need before you target it.
Finally, if the fish is swimming away and you cannot follow it, wait! Don’t put out a suboptimal cast as a last ditch effort to catch it. Rainbow trout often have consistent patrol routes. So, leaving the fish and waiting for it to return is a much better option than desperately casting and risking spooking it as a result.
The technique
As I said, fly placement is vital; so vital, in fact that where you put the fly is more important than what you put there. Essentially, you make your fly as convenient for the fish as possible, without spooking them. To do this, you want the fly to be on the path of the fish, at the fish’s depth. To get the fly in that magic zone, there are two things that need to be taken account of: the speed the fish is moving at, and the depth at which they are moving.
If the fish is moving quickly, there is less time for the fly to sink, so you will need to cast the fly further in front, giving the fly enough time to sink down to the fish’s depth. Using a heavier fly will of course also achieve the same goal. When the fish are shallower, reducing the distance from fly to fish can be dangerous, as the fly landing too near could easily alarm the trout. So, a lighter fly should be used, so it does not sink past the fish, nor need to be landed too close to the cruising fish.
Where is the fish positioned?
One thing to bear in mind, which unfortunately anglers often forget about, is that the apparent position of the fish is often not the actual position of the fish. This is due to the refraction of water. This is caused by a difference in the optical densities of air and water. As a result, fish are often deeper and closer to the angler than they seem, which can result in a fly being too shallow in the water column, or even behind the fish (although this is more common when sight-fishing in running water). This will be reflected in the actions of the fish; seemingly ‘perfect presentation’ will receive absolutely no reaction from the fish. If in doubt, cast further in front of the fish to compensate for the refraction.
Leave it static or induce the take?
Once the fly is in front of the fish, you have two main options: to leave it static, or to try and induce a take. Inducing a take just means lifting the fly in the water, which is done either by stripping the line or lifting the rod tip at close quarters. We do this because the movement created can sometimes stimulate the fish to eat the fly. Whether or not to induce a take depends entirely on the fish; some want movement to commit to the take, and some don’t.
Some flies are suited to induced takes; for example, mobile flies with marabou or tinsel tails are ideal for this because the movement will be reflected in their tails. Being able to stalk using both induced takes and static flies is a great skill because it allows you to cater to the pedantic tastes of particular fish! If one type doesn’t work, try the other.
Lastly, repeat the technique. As mentioned, the fish often aren’t looking for food. The beauty of stalking is that flies will be presented to a fish perfectly so many times that often the fish will eat; sometimes even on the 10th or 20th time!
Bite indication
One of the more difficult aspects of this method is bite indication. Fish, especially when wary, will take and eject a fly so quickly that precise striking is crucial. There are two ways to tell whether the fish has taken your fly. Either you look at the fish, or you look at the fly. Personally, I prefer the former. When trout take, there is usually a flash of white as their mouth opens, which is a great indication to strike. This is the method to use when you are using very small flies which seem to disappear in the water, like drab nymphs.
When using a bigger fly, like a firebird, it will be obvious when it is taken, because you can clearly see it being eaten. However, when using smaller flies, like a nymph, waiting for the fly to disappear is unreliable. Firstly, it is easy to lose sight of them. Moreover, these flies can often disappear behind the fish, and striking at this sign is likely to result in a foul – hooked fish. So, a good rule for bite indication is this; for big flies, look at the fly, and for small flies, watch the fish.
Blind stalking
Now, in my opinion, this is not technically stalking because it is not sight fishing. However, I promised that I would aim to make this guide comprehensive, and many people consider this method a form of stalking, so here we go. Blind stalking, regardless of its categorization, is undoubtedly a lethal method for fishing the margins when the water is coloured. Basically, you jig or retrieve flies in the margins to tempt any fish that might be lying there. For example, a wagon warrior is a great fly for fishing this method. Make a long cast parallel to the margins and retrieve it back with a sink and draw action. Alternatively, jigging a bright tinsel fly like a firebird gives beautifully pulsating flashes in coloured water. It’s amazing for fishing under trees and likely cover. This method is particularly deadly at waters like Ellerdine.
How to use stalking on everyday trips
Even if you don’t want to spend your whole day wandering around the bank and rarely casting, stalking can still be incorporated into your day. Firstly, every angler should be fishing the margins. Too often, I see other anglers arrive at a new spot, and immediately cast a full line. This is so frustrating to watch (apart from in competitions!) because these anglers will often be missing out on a potential fish lying in the margins near them, which will inevitably spook.
Instead, approach your new peg with caution and stealth, making sure not to disturb any fish lying close to the bank. By doing this, you have put yourself in the position to be able to stalk these fish, potentially resulting in an extra fish that would otherwise have been spooked. Therefore, even if you don’t plan to stalk for the whole trip, including aspects of this technique into your fishing can often win you an extra fish.
Flies
Contrary to the popular belief of anglers that I have talked to, I firmly believe that presentation is much more important than fly choice in this particular case. Nevertheless, especially when targeting large and spooky fish, your pattern can absolutely make the difference between success and tantalising failure.
How to choose the right fly
I only have two rules when it comes to fly selection for stalking; start small and drab and work up. When a fish has spooked, you can’t just rewind time and try again. Bigger and brighter flies are much more likely to alarm a fish. Bigger flies are very useful for provoking a reaction, but this reaction could easily be to bolt into cover, rather than to take. Therefore, it is much safer to start with smaller flies and work up in size and brightness, to minimize the number of spooked fish.
Rule number 2 is more general. Use a fly that you can control. If you want to induce a take, you need control of the fly. If you want to change the path of the fly, you need control of the fly. When making precise casts to intercept a moving fish, you need control of that fly. In the water, that control is gained through direct contact. A heavier fly is useful for this, because there is less slack in the leader, so the movement of your rod are reflected more accurately in the movement of your fly. On the flip side, if your flies are too heavy, you loose control. You need to be able to consistently hit the target of your cast to prevent spooked fish.
Specific flies
If your fly choice obeys these two rules, then the exact pattern is almost irrelevant. Nevertheless, there are some excellent patterns which I fish regularly when stalking on small stillwaters. For me, the size and profile of the flies are a more important aspect than colour. As you will notice, all of these flies present a different profile to the fish.
Firebird
This is of the most popular stalking patterns, used to great effect on specimen waters like Dever Springs and Avington. While popular for sight fishing, I don’t find it that useful in that capacity; interestingly, I find the utility of this fly is blind stalking; the mobile tinsel in the tail pulsates beautifully when jigged in the margins, showing up even in coloured water. Nevertheless, fish it both ways to find out for yourself.
Wagon Warrior
Another pattern very useful for blind stalking. I often cast this along the margins and retrieve it with a sink and draw pattern. However, the overweight jig bead also gives it lethal movement in the water; for maximum productivity, try to use an induced take when sight – fishing rather than just sinking it and fishing it static.
Shammy Worm
While other worms patterns will work when stalking, this one is undoubtedly the king of them all. The falling silhouette presented by this fly just seems irresistible to fish. Thin the strips (with tying scissors) to give them more mobility.
WAIF
Classic, simple, deadly. This strange contraption of deer hair and wire is undoubtedly an extremely effective pattern. The white deer hair provides great visibility to the angler when the fly is in the water, but also seldom spooks fish.
Micro Egg
Another example of a fly designed for the bung that really delivers when stalking. In my opinion, these eggs are perfectly weighted to intercept cruising fish, and their attractive profile and soft texture makes them ideal for spooky fish, particularly browns.
Drab nymphs
These have accounted for the vast majority of my largest trout. In terms of colours, brown, beige, and even claret are best. My top flies would be the blackhead nymph, or Ronan Creane’s range of nymph patterns. His claret nymph is size 16 is something the fish will rarely see, and this has accounted for some large stillwater fish for me in the past.
Foam Beetle
Often the fish we are targeting are quite sluggish, and not feeding, but the attractive plop of a foam beetle galvanises them to take. This fly is excellent in high summer under foliage and in the margins, and will consistently outfish smaller dries because it is more enticing to a lethargic fish.
I really hope that you can integrate these methods of stalking on small stillwaters into your everyday fishing and capitalise on those wary fish tight on the bank that so many anglers neglect. Alternatively, you could just launch a vast line out, and pray that you are covering fish. It’s your choice.
If you enjoyed reading this, check out some of our other articles on stillwater fishing.
The post Stalking on Small Stillwaters: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Fulling Mill Blog.