Fundamental rule

[Dryrod]

[cool][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3]A great number of fishermen have never learned the fundamental rule of river, creek or stream fishing. That is to keep your bait in the fish zone which is never more than a foot off the bottom of these bodies of water.[/size][/green][/font]
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[bdn06]

How true that can be. I used to fish Box Canyon in midsummer, in Island Park. The best way to catch the big 'bows was to use a sinking tip line, or split shot (or twist on), a big black woolly worm, and cast upstream enough to allow your fly to be within the bottom one foot of the water as it came down the middle of the rapids. The helgramites only moved for about an hour or two each day, and then the bite would shut off. However, I discovered if I changed to a Hare's ear, muskrat, or mink body nymph, sometimes even a renegade, and fish it in the same manner, I could continue to pick up fish.
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[fish_a_holic]

I'd agree with that concept most of the time, with one major exception to the rule - and that's when bass fishing during the warm weather months, at that time of the year a buzz bait or a chugger-type bait can be deadly worked cross current near structural breaks.
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[Fishhound]

[black][size 3]For many fishing applications that could be true. However, I fish dry flies quite often and that would not really be the case.[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]I think it would depend on the kind of fish, the time of year, and the body of water in question. Many fish feed higher up in the water column and often right at the surface. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]It is true for many fish and for many situations, and even for those times when top water presentations do work well, subsurface or near bottom ones can often get the job done as well.[/size][/black]
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[Dryrod]

[cool][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3]Oh I fish dry's most of the time. But hey if they are not hitting on top then down I go. What ever it take. Oh by the way rules were meant to be broken.[/size][/green][/font]
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[tubeN2]

I will generally work the water column till I find them. That keeps the smell of the skunk out of the basket.[cool]
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