Frankisms

Editor’s note: I received the article that follows, a collection of angling aphorisms, on August 18th. Exactly one month later, its author, Frank Pisciotta, “Da Dean” of fly-fishing guides in the Truckee area, and certainly one of the longest-working and most experienced guides in California, passed away from an unexpected and virulent form of cancer. He was a longtime supporter of this magazine, and a friend. I know you will find his advice valuable.


There came a point after numerous years of guiding skilled fly anglers or instructing those new to the sport that I realized I was espousing recurring themes and ideas. The name that I’ve coined for these aphorisms, simple, concise, and truthful sayings, is Frankisms.

The sayings are not new, earth-shattering, or unique fly-fishing concepts, merely my personal observations and, admittedly, some biased opinions. They are exceedingly useful when I want to instill a concept that is beneficial and easily understood, a timely idea that I want to emphasize. My intent is that the concepts will be subconsciously embedded into the fly fisher’s psyche. My selective use of the Frankisms is based on relevance when instructing beginners with core insights or introducing thoughts that skilled fly anglers previously never considered, taking them to another level.

Strategy

When fishing is slow, move fast . . . . When fishing is fast, move slow.

That sure makes sense. In the absence of an observed, steadily feeding trout, don’t pound the water. Be diligent in reading the water and establish the upstream, downstream, and sidestream parameters of the holding water, then make methodical fan casts, near to far. No take? Move on.

When prospecting, the angler is hoping to pique the interest of an opportunistic feeder. Usually one’s first, good drift has the highest percentage of getting the grab, with chances diminishing with each successive presentation. Again, in the absence of visibly feeding fish, if nothing takes, move on. The more water you cover efficiently, the more trout will see and, you hope, eat your fly.

Trout face into the current.

Most anglers will say the trout are “facing upstream” — it’s not always true. They can be facing downstream in a swirling, bank-side eddy or surface upwelling at midstream, Both can create contrary currents. In these locations, the trout faces in the opposite direction of the main flow.

Overall, such reverse flows are few. Nevertheless, the concept should be ingrained when reading water. Always be cognizant of these divergent currents. Otherwise, your presumed stealthy upstream or downstream approach is for naught. The trout sees you and is on the alert or gone.

As an aside, the basic difference between a trout’s feeding behavior in a stream relative to a lake is that in the latter, the trout swims to where the food is located.

The longer the struggle, the higher the probability of unhooking.

For various reasons, we lose fish during the struggle: a soft-tissue hook set, “pilot error,” a weak knot, a small hook losing its hold (small gap!), tippet breakage, and more. The odds of separation are increased the longer the struggle. Personally, I strive to bring a trout to net as quickly as possible. I want to release healthy, wild trout in survivable condition. Some fly anglers prefer using the lightest gear possible, including rod weights and terminal tippets. Not me.

Presentation

The presentation and match-the-hatch schools of thought are interdependent, not mutually exclusive.

Ideally, an angler has the both the right presentation and the right fly imitation . . . or vice versa. You must have both a primary trigger and a secondary trigger for the specific situation: the right fly, accompanied by the correct presentation, whether a dead drift or movement of the fly, or the correct presentation of the right fly. The slower the water, the more opportunity the trout has to inspect the fraud, so it is important to select the correct size, shape, and color of the natural food item and to present it in a lifelike manner. Conversely, the faster the water, the less chance the fish has of inspecting the fly. The trout has to make a quick decision, or the food passes by. So here, initially, one’s first instinct is to present the fly in a lifelike manner, primarily with a dead drift, but also to present the correct fly.

David Foster, one of my mentors, is fond of saying, “If it looks like food and acts like food, they’ll eat it.”

A cast laid is a cast made.

Quit slapping the water or immediately picking-up an errant cast. This Frankism is most appropriate when dryfly and emerger fishing to a trout steadily feeding at the surface or in the film.

When casting upstream, before making your first presentation, calibrate the correct distance with false casts, initially away from the targeted fish. When confident of the proper distance, then make the money cast. Again, your first, good cast and drift affords you the highest percentage of a take.

Measuring the cast also applies while casting downstream. When making a fly-first presentation, remember to strip enough line off the reel and lay it at your feet so the you can effectively present the fly by bump-feeding the line out. If no take, let your fly drift past the targeted feeder, pick up, and cast again.

When casting from the side, do a reach cast. It will extend your drift and minimize your mending.

frank
FRANK R. PISCIOTTA GUIDED FOR 37 YEARS ON TRUCKEE-AREA WATERS AND WAS A PASSIONATE ADVOCATE FOR PROTECTIVE ANGLING REGULATIONS AND ETHICAL GUIDING PRACTICES.

Trout Selectivity

You will never catch a trout in the air.

Minimize false casting. Excessive casting will spook fish.

Likely there are some longtime fly anglers who have experienced the rare scene of a trout leaping into the air and eating one’s airborne imitation. I recall a unique incident on the McCloud River eons ago. Two trout each made perfectly timed aerials, pirouetting and body-slamming each other away from my fly before it gracefully fell on the water’s surface. This was the closest I’d ever been to an aerial hook-up.

Observe more, cast less.

There are two things the fly angler has to consider after having sighted a steadily feeding trout at the surface and before making that first cast. This also applies if you can sight-fish to a subsurface feeder.

First, assess the precise perimeters of the trout’s feeding lane. One’s fly presentation has to be within those exact borders, otherwise the trout likely will not eat.

Second, determine whether the trout has a consistent feeding rhythm. Is it every 15 seconds, 30 seconds, once a minute, or more? This observation reveals both where and when the trout will rise, ingest the food item, and return to its holding lie. Once established, the sequence repeats itself. The angler then presents the fly at the precise time of the start of a rise sequence.

An interesting aside here: I once guided an English angler on the Little Truckee. His preference was fishing dries, whether the trout were on top or not. After I commented that I’d observed a sporadic riser, he responded, “Good. We now know where it is, because it is ‘on station.’ ”

Of course, you have to present the right fly — size, shape and color, in that order of importance. If all three, all the better. Yes, your fly also should initially “go with the flow.” Thereafter, impart movement.

The less line out, the more control.

Yes, there are exceptions, such as long-line swinging with single or two-handed rods. However, line management is an important element in presenting a fly. In conjunction with proper positioning prior to the cast, we have to determine the proper amount of line required to make an efficient cast and drift before the hook set. The shorter the distance to the targeted trout, the better.

Where you see a surface disturbance is not where the trout is. Generally, it is upstream.

and

The slower the water, the more time the trout has to inspect your fly; the faster the water, the less time.

These are self-explanatory, but anglers do forget them. Subliminally, the level of angling challenge we seek dictates the type of water we fish. The velocity of the water determines what presentation and fly the angler selects.

If looking for easy, aggressive trout to dupe, fish riffles, boulder fields, deep runs, and the headwaters of mountain creeks. There, trout have to a make quick decisions, or the food is gone. When seeking a more technical challenge, seek out low-gradient meadow streams, spring creeks, the smooth, pool tailouts of a freestone river, or the windless surface of a lake.

The closer you can get to the trout without spooking it, the better.

As with the shorter the line, the more efficient the presentation, this axiom is more pertinent when observing a trout visually feeding at or near the surface. Move deliberately and stealthily toward the intended target. A wary trout is more difficult to dupe.

General

When in doubt, add.

When fishing subsurface, the fly has to be were the trout are. Most of the time, they’ll be at the bottom, not in the transition or upper zone of the water column. Get down there by adding the proper amount weight to your terminal gear via split shot, malleable weighted putty, or weight incorporated into the fly. The latter generally applies to Euro nymphing and the former two to tight-line or indicator nymphing.

Tippet diameter is constant, regardless of manufacturer. Tensile strength is variable.

I use the “rule of eleven” to find tippet diameter: subtract the X number from 11. So 5X is .006 inches. My understanding of the industry standard is that all manufacturers of 5X tippet make it exactly .006-inches. What is not constant is tensile strength. I’m guessing that the breaking strength of different manufacturers’ tippet varies at one-half to one and one-half pounds. I’m talking about monofilament. The variance spread may be different with fluorocarbon.

So when you are befuddled after breaking off several trout and want to know what size tippet your fishing partner is using, you’re asking the wrong question. Instead, you want to know the tensile strength of the tippet material, not the diameter. But few anglers know the tensile strength of all the tippet producers’ offerings.

The velocity of the surface disturbance in a rise is indicative of two things: the ability of the food item to escape and the life stage of the food item.

I’ve coined this Frankism as the Two Rules of Rise Rings. Let the trout tell you what they are eating. That’s the message of the classic book What the Trout Said, by Datus Proper: a trout will not expend more energy than the caloric intake of its food items. Otherwise they will not survive.

Spring and fall hatches are mirror images of each other relative to the best time of day to fish surface flies.

This is about optimum water temperatures. Generally, there will be less solar heating of the water during the spring and fall. Theoretically, therefore, the best time to be on the water is midday, when the water temperature is at its highest. Warming water triggers aquatic insect activity and a corresponding increase in the feeding metabolism of the trout.

Dry-fly anglers love drizzly, overcast weather.

And so do trout, though the bugs don’t, once they’ve hatched, especially emerging mayflies and midges. The lack of solar heating means it takes longer for their wings to dry and gain the structural strength to allow flight. The resulting extended drift makes them more vulnerable to confident, top-water takes by the trout.

When someone tells you there is only one way, doubt them, until it’s proven otherwise.For sure, this is not absolute. There are binary black-and-whites in the world of fly fishing. For instance, an exception is the dynamics of various casts. The dynamics have to be precise in curve, hook, and reach casts, among others


Frankie

I had heard of Frank through my father in the late ’80s as being the best guide in the Truckee area, but it was not until the early ’90s that I finally met him in person. Frank was a very giving man, and when I opened up my guide service in 1996, he went out of his way to not only help me, but also to eliminate all the guesswork involved, as it was my first venture into the guiding world. He explained the Forest Service permitting application, and I marched into the Beckwourth Ranger Station of the Plumas National Forest soon after to apply. They had never heard of a special use permit for fishing guides. I quickly enlightened them, giving the pertinent information I had learned from Frank. After the meeting, the District Ranger, John Haven, asked “Where did you learn this from?” I simply said, “Frank R. Pisciotta of Thy Rod & Staff Guide Service.”

Jon Baiocchi

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