Reading Water
Where fish actually live
Stream and lake morphology - riffles, pools, runs, seams, eddies - and the reasons fish hold where they do. Read the water before you read the fly.
12 cardsReading a Riffle
Where fish actually feed in fast, broken water - and where they don't.
Eddies and Soft Spots
Slack water inside fast water. Where fish wait between bites.
Pools, Runs, and Riffles
Every stream is a sequence of three water types. Each one fishes differently.
Spring Creeks vs Freestones
Two different kinds of trout streams, two different fishing strategies. How to read each one.
Fishing Seams
If you only learn to read one piece of water, make it the seam. It out-fishes everything else.
Reading a Tailwater
Cold, clear, regulated water below a dam. Different rules than a freestone - and more selective fish.
Where to Cast a Spinner
Reading water for hardware. Adapting the same lie-and-structure logic to lures that pull through the strike zone instead of drifting through it.
Reading Bass Structure
Bass don't live everywhere in a lake. They live on edges. Find the edge between two things - and you've found the fish.
Stillwater Bait Tactics
Bait in a lake isn't bait in a river. No current to drift, no obvious lies - you have to know how trout move through still water before the bait works.
Fishing High or Muddy Water
Rain blows the river out and most anglers go home. The fish don't leave - they just move.
Reading a Lake
A river tells you where the fish are. A lake makes you find them. Here's how to read still water.
Water Temperature and Fish
Trout are cold-blooded, so the water temperature sets the whole day. It is the one number that decides everything else.