tips for very flat water

[jgib01]

I've encountered a piece of water a couple of times this fall that has perplexed me.  It is an area on a river where it widens out, slows and takes a large sweeping turn.  It has areas of varying depth, and fish can be found rising just about everywhere in it depending on the day. Typically, if there is little to no wind, this water can be smooth as glass. Were it not for foam, bugs and other particulate on the surface moving, it would be hard to tell from stillwater. You really have to be in the water to get to the seams and foamlines, and the fish here seem to be super spooky... so very tough to get into position.  I have found myself "giving up" on it after an hour of creeping and casting to rises, in favour of some slightly rougher water upstream.  Any thought or considerations for approaching this?

[Dangus]

Are you putting them down just from the gravel crunching under foot?

long, well designed leader...minimal false casts.  Not sure if it does anything but sometimes I'll false cast away from the fish, like 90 degrees to it, and then fire it in with a change in body positioning.  If anything Eliminates some of the spray off the fly and line landing on the water around the fish. 

Dave Jensen would say cast upstream to the side of the rising fish rather than right ahead of its nose.

Or just wait til it's pretty dark.

 

[toolman]

Downstream presentations may work. With the clear water the trout often see your fly when you cast it as it passes over them and are spooked by it, so try casting immediately when the  fish rises and is turning back down.

[bowbonehead]

 As above, lighter and longer leaders, only pickup and cast immediately after the fish has risen, eliminate the false casting, if all else fails try micro stripping a small backswimmer or small nymph through down and across and be prepared for a vicious take or you will likely be broken off if the fish is of size..... they were awesome today.....

[SilverDoctor]

.... and be sure that only your tippet is drifting over your Trouts holding area not your fly line. Dress in muted colours,  If you have to wade to get into position for a cast give it lots of time for things to calm down. Think about where you need to be for a proper presentation, plan it out.  

[Dangus]

To continue on the pick up idea. If you wiggle your rod tip while picking up the line it will come up with less of a disturbance.  Also it goes without saying, if you make a bad cast, wait for your fly to come back past the fish before picking up again. 

[toolman]

I use a gentle roll cast to start, then a lift into the back cast. This releases (unsticks) the line with minimal water disturbance and additional line speed is possible into the back cast, with fewer false casts required. A roll casts at the start of the casting cycle also allows you to lift longer lengths of line off the water.

[troutlover]

not mentioned also is compression waves. If you are walking out into the water if you make a wave by pushing water you will put them down. Sometimes it is painful how slow you need to move. In some spots it is near impossible not to do this with out shutting down the fish. So you need to wade out to position with as little disturbance as possible and just stand and wait for things to consistently start up again. Sometimes this takes 10 min sometimes 45. This is why i fish with a bobber. I don't have the patience for that *hit. 

[jgib01]

Lots of great tips here, and a couple of cool things for me to try.  I'm definitely putting some fish down by my presence in the water (crunching gravel, compression waves), but the rising will start again soon after I'm "in place" for a few minutes.  Trying to use the Josh Nugent tip of not casting to a fish until you see it feed 3X (super testing of my patience!!). 

With downstream casting, do you pretty much have one shot at it? I'd guess the fish could be pretty easily spooked on the pickup, both by my occasional bad rip of the fly off the water as well as by the simple movement of fly line shortly in front of them.

[Dangus]

On the downstream let it go tight after and swing away from the fish and then slowly strip it in.  Def have to worry about line spray when you’re fishing like that.  Better to stop way short and feed more line in than try to land it right in front of the fish