In this episode we Wadeoutthere with Marcos Mazzola from South Florida. Marcos began his fly fishing journey wading and fishing from a skiff in the saltwater flats with his close friend from school who also became his fly fishing mentor. As he progressed as a fly fisher, his photography passion began to become more and more intertwined with his love of the outdoors.
Tactics and Techniques
Targeting the Middle of the Water Column and Alternatives to the Hopper Dropper
When I first started fishing to the middle of the water column, it was typically to trout eating just below the surface. The hopper dropper (or dry dropper) was my primary tactic. But the more I fished, the more I saw opportunities to fish the middle of the water column that were not best suited for the dry dropper technique.
“Wanna catch a fish pop?”
He always asks the same way. I always smile.
Yes. Let’s go. I do want to catch a fish. Even though I know it is not the fish we are after.
I know the adventure of the river motivates him more that the act of fly fishing. I know it is the excitement of the car drive and the sounds of Cory Morrow and Waylon Jennings as he softly sings along. I know it is the journey into a part of his father’s world that convinces him he is tasting something special. Like staying up past bedtime on the Fourth of July. I know all of that. Or maybe none of it. Maybe he is teaching me as much about fly fishing as I have to give. Or at least giving me the chance to see who he is against the pure backdrop of a cold trout stream cut through ancient mountains.
It happened again and I shook my head. The moment I went to tie the flashback into the flashback pheasant tail I was diligently creating, my thread broke. It happens. Rare. But still happens. The olive strand unraveled just enough to taunt me. Hope? There was no hope. I was done with this fly and reached to throw it away, then stopped. Could I save it?
There is so much to learn and teach if we take the time. We show them seams where trout feed or carry them across swift currents. Flip rocks and match bugs from a fly box. Wet their hands before holding the trout you let them reel in. Laugh as they splash and swing the net, chasing a big brown darting on your line in the current.
“I’d say just time on the water. You have to put in the time, if you want to get better.”
“I think it was when I started spending a lot more time on the water that I really began to improve.”
“Time on the water is the most important thing. You have to put in the time”
Time on the water. We’ve all heard it at this point. So many anglers attribute this single factor as the most important step towards improvement on their fly fishing journey.
I’ve come to believe that making significant strides in our fly fishing abilities is not that far out of reach if we do what we can to make the most of our time on the water.
After lunch, my brother fished the seam that separated the fast water along the far bank from the slack water along the island where we ate our lunch.