Latest / The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 99: Unlocking Late Summer Fly Fishing Strategies with Dustin White

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S6, Ep 99: Unlocking Late Summer Fly Fishing Strategies with Dustin White · The Articulate Fly

0:03
Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
0:06
Marvin: We're back with another On the Water with Dustin White. Dustin, how are you?
0:11
Dustin: Marvin, I am doing great. Got off the water, having a little post-work beverage
0:17
Dustin: and loving life. How about you, man?
0:19
Marvin: I'm getting there. So I just want to see where you are in the progression.
0:22
Marvin: Have you moved from like craft beers to liquor or are you still on craft beer?
0:27
Dustin: Oh, I'm not even in that. Matt, I have a bloody beer, which at the moment is
0:33
Dustin: a PDR with the Zing Zang pre-mixed bloody sauce.
0:39
Dustin: So that's the status of my evening right now. So you can't complain.
0:44
Marvin: Yeah, that's a great way to replenish electrolytes and way better than just
0:47
Marvin: tomato juice. I was going to say, if you said kombucha, I was just going to hang up on you.
0:52
Dustin: I do have standards.
0:53
Marvin: There's so you know
0:58
Marvin: it's kind of funny last two weeks we talked um everyone else um you know had
1:03
Marvin: better weather and now you're winning because you are you're in that kind of
1:06
Marvin: breezy kind of cool off getting even drier than usual right for uh the high
1:11
Marvin: prairie yeah yeah so what are you seeing on the water um.
1:15
Dustin: You know uh we are starting to see finally starting to see some some some good dry fly action.
1:21
Dustin: And that's kind of typical this time of year. Once we, you know,
1:24
Dustin: start to get that little cool off and the trichos have kind of been out for a while,
1:29
Dustin: generally speaking every day, about that first hour and a half after that spinner
1:33
Dustin: fall, cut on each system that we would guide on.
1:37
Dustin: We're finding trout, you know, kind of sipping in that biomass of the spinner
1:42
Dustin: fall of trichos. So that's been really exciting.
1:45
Dustin: You have even had the other day on the mile, some, you know,
1:50
Dustin: a pretty modest but sustainable little pot of fish that were rising on Blue Wings.
1:57
Dustin: So that was really, really, that's been fun.
1:59
Dustin: Really haven't been too many fish taking caddis on the surface yet.
2:03
Dustin: Some here or there, but it has been a little breezy.
2:07
Dustin: So a lot of those caddis really haven't been kind of skittering around on the
2:10
Dustin: water in those times where those fish are looking up.
2:13
Dustin: But, you know, on the mile, they just dropped us today, in fact.
2:18
Dustin: So we went from 1,600 CFS, which they had dropped it down from 2,500-ish down
2:25
Dustin: to 1,600 a week or so ago. Now we're down to...
2:30
Dustin: To uh 800 so that's kind of consolidating those
2:33
Dustin: fish but um it it's it's
2:36
Dustin: a double-edged sword because on one hand it means oh man
2:39
Dustin: a lot of the the migratory fish that had uh you know pushed up in the system
2:43
Dustin: and have been holding there for much of the summer are starting to drop back
2:47
Dustin: into the reservoir but it gives us a great window of a few weeks of just phenomenal
2:51
Dustin: fishing as those fish are starting their journey back into the reservoir they're
2:56
Dustin: kind of holding in that sort of transition water.
2:58
Dustin: And so you can really capitalize on those fish. And so that's,
3:02
Dustin: that's what we're doing a lot of right now.
3:04
Dustin: Um, but we kind of have been picking them apart, uh, uh, in,
3:08
Dustin: uh, you know, the kind of four mile stretch.
3:10
Dustin: Uh, but now that we're at that 800 today, we're starting to see some of those
3:14
Dustin: fish kind of consolidate stage up, um, in those sections. So that's been a lot of fun.
3:19
Dustin: Um, the The reef is still pretty grassy, pretty mossy. It's running high right now.
3:27
Dustin: But I would say that the saving grace of that is that you get those pockets
3:32
Dustin: in that slack water where those fish are willing to eat those trichos,
3:38
Dustin: as I said, on the surface.
3:40
Dustin: So that's been good. um you know it's it
3:42
Dustin: really is a trichocatus um worm
3:46
Dustin: uh sort of fair in terms
3:50
Dustin: of if you're going to nymph for them if you're going to throw dries um you
3:53
Dustin: know we like i said uh definitely trichos are the way to go uh with the cooler
3:58
Dustin: days uh that we're getting a little bit of cloud cover that's been coming in
4:02
Dustin: uh that's when starting to say hey keep an eye peeled for some blue wings because
4:06
Dustin: when that hatch comes off uh that'll definitely entice those fish to come up um Um,
4:11
Dustin: uh, likewise, uh, I would say much is still the same for, for the bighorn.
4:17
Dustin: Um, you know, trichos, uh, caddis worms primarily there haven't had a ton of
4:23
Dustin: dry fly action there, but, uh, it is just around the corner.
4:27
Dustin: So, uh, we're really kind of looking forward to when, uh, flows start dropping on the reef.
4:31
Dustin: Uh, that's going to open up a lot more sections for us to get lower in the system.
4:35
Dustin: Like what you and I had since the last time you were out here, Marvin.
4:40
Dustin: That is just around the corner for us. So it should be another week,
4:44
Dustin: two weeks, and that portion of the system should be fired on all cylinders.
4:51
Dustin: But right now, the midsection has been where, you know, if we're not on the
4:57
Dustin: mile, that's been where I've been spending most of our time.
5:00
Marvin: Got it. And got a really good streamer question for you. You came in by email today from Paul.
5:05
Marvin: Fair. And he's got a fishing puzzle for you. So he's found some large fish holding,
5:10
Marvin: he says, in like a five foot by seven foot pocket that's about 10 feet deep.
5:15
Marvin: And he said the water's pretty fast and bouldery.
5:18
Marvin: And he's had chases and nips, but he hasn't been able to get a hookup.
5:21
Marvin: And he was kind of curious if we had, you know, kind of any leader formula suggestions
5:25
Marvin: for throwing large articulated streamers to help him get down in that quicker
5:29
Marvin: water or if we had any other suggestions for him.
5:33
Dustin: Sure. That's a great question, Paul. I love that.
5:36
Dustin: The first thing I'm going to ask is, what is actually your fly line itself that you're using?
5:42
Dustin: Are you using a sinking line?
5:44
Dustin: If not, do you have a sinking leader or sink tip that you're employing?
5:50
Dustin: The most important thing is if it's in that fast
5:53
Dustin: water and they're down that deep you need to
5:56
Dustin: get down to them somehow shortening up your leader system is definitely going
6:01
Dustin: to help with that so you know the first thing is you know look at your fly line
6:04
Dustin: look at that that leader make sure and look at your ips you know so you know
6:11
Dustin: how fast is it sinking what angle are you,
6:15
Dustin: casting towards in order to get that down to depth and so you're kind of doing
6:19
Dustin: that that whole formula there, once you're at that point, then I would say you
6:24
Dustin: can probably shorten up your leader.
6:26
Dustin: Your typical, if you're the dry fly leader that's 12 plus feet long,
6:32
Dustin: definitely way too much. A nymphing leader, way too much. So you shorten up that leader.
6:39
Dustin: You might want to build that section of 4-0 to 1, that shorter butt section
6:45
Dustin: that tapers down yourself.
6:47
Dustin: That way you get that fly to turn over.
6:49
Dustin: But, you know, with that, you know, after you get out of that butt section,
6:53
Dustin: a thinner portion of that leader to help you get down to depth can help.
6:58
Dustin: But again, even if that's, you know, if that's predicated that you have a,
7:04
Dustin: you know, a full sink line and flies that can get down, think about having some
7:08
Dustin: weighted flies at that point.
7:10
Dustin: And then we kind of go into the philosophy of what the, you know,
7:14
Dustin: hunting tactics are of those fish and even fly construction.
7:18
Dustin: So let's talk the latter first, fly construction.
7:22
Dustin: Again, making sure you're getting down to depth. So if you're...
7:30
Dustin: Have a sinking line, sinking leader, still not quite getting down.
7:34
Dustin: Might want to think about having some weighted flies.
7:38
Dustin: The other thing is, it sounds like you are getting nips and takes.
7:41
Dustin: They might just be shallow. And so there's two things that I would say to consider there.
7:46
Dustin: One is the construction of the fly. So if you are tying those flies,
7:50
Dustin: where is that trailer hook located at? How near the tail?
7:55
Dustin: A lot of commercially tied flies. flies, that hook might be a little further
8:01
Dustin: up from the tail and trout will often give those kind of shallow takes.
8:05
Dustin: Oftentimes, what you're interpreting as a shallow nip at the tail might actually
8:11
Dustin: be a fish trying to t-bone or injure that bait fish and come around for it.
8:16
Dustin: So what that means is if you're tying your own flies, consider that hook to
8:21
Dustin: be back further towards that, that tail section.
8:25
Dustin: So for example, you know, I love fishing a lot of, a lot of game changers,
8:29
Dustin: um, but a lot of changers, um, are tied and has, you know, a tail,
8:34
Dustin: you have a tail shank, then another shank in front of it. And then you have your hook.
8:37
Dustin: Uh, a lot of times when I'm tying mine, I'm tying like the hooks,
8:40
Dustin: the hook, that trailer hook as the tail section of it to ensure if it is a shallow
8:46
Dustin: take from that fish, um, that, that I'm able to get that hook up.
8:49
Dustin: The other thing is, too, if you think biologically of how that fish is hunting,
8:54
Dustin: if it's trying to injure that bait fish and then come back around.
8:57
Dustin: You need to consider that in your retrieval.
9:01
Dustin: If you keep retrieving it after that nip and it's kind of done,
9:06
Dustin: then that fish probably has circled back around to kind of pick that up.
9:10
Dustin: So play with the cadence of your retrieval.
9:14
Dustin: Obviously, if you're getting the chases, then you've got the right cadence there.
9:17
Dustin: But if that nip is happening and then it's kind of done, I'd consider,
9:21
Dustin: you know, pausing that and then kind of, you know, swimming the fly as if it were injured.
9:27
Dustin: The last thing I would consider, you know, is that, you know,
9:31
Dustin: needing to visualize what that water looks like.
9:35
Dustin: If it's coming off of a flat, you know, a lot of times, at least here on the
9:38
Dustin: North Platte, a lot of those deeper buckets that like you're describing that
9:43
Dustin: fast water coming off a shallow flat.
9:45
Dustin: And a lot of times we as anglers want to strip off the flat or strip off the
9:49
Dustin: shallow into the deep when the reality is.
9:53
Dustin: A lot of larger predatory trout
9:55
Dustin: want to chase bait fish up onto those shallows to eliminate how many,
10:03
Dustin: you know, access points that they're needing to engage in in order to attack that fly.
10:08
Dustin: So meaning if that fish doesn't have to raise vertically and it can only attack
10:15
Dustin: that prey laterally, it's going to, you know, definitely prefer that too.
10:19
Dustin: So think about where you are casting into and retrieving from,
10:23
Dustin: and that might help as well.
10:25
Dustin: So there's a lot of different factors, but if you kind of play around with that
10:29
Dustin: formula there, I think you might have some success.
10:31
Marvin: And just to back up for a second on the streamer leader formula,
10:35
Marvin: I would imagine you're probably talking about something that's maybe all in,
10:38
Marvin: maybe five feet long, right?
10:39
Marvin: Like maybe like, yeah, like that. that yeah yeah i mean four i would think maybe
10:44
Marvin: what five four feet five feet probably yeah you know but it's probably like
10:49
Marvin: 20 pound maxima dropping down to maybe like 15 right 15.
10:53
Dustin: Yep absolutely absolutely yep.
10:55
Marvin: Yep just wanted to make sure we got that in there and you
10:58
Marvin: know folks we love questions on the articulate fly you can email them
11:00
Marvin: to us or dm us on social media whatever is easiest for you and if we use your
11:04
Marvin: question i will send you some articulate fly schwag and we are drawing for a
11:08
Marvin: half a day of fishing with dustin and dustin like we always do we like to give
11:11
Marvin: a shout out to a uh local uh eatery or watering hole and i think we have a watering
11:16
Marvin: hole this time right yeah.
11:19
Dustin: We do i want to shout out front here brewing uh located
11:22
Dustin: in downtown casper one of our uh many just
11:25
Dustin: fantastic breweries that are here in town but uh just a
11:28
Dustin: great staple in the community they are in the old fox movie theater so that's
11:33
Dustin: pretty cool i mean to go into the brewery and you know it's kind of i mean literally
11:38
Dustin: movie theater style seating they They obviously have kind of a standard tap
11:42
Dustin: room with the bar and tabletops.
11:46
Dustin: But they got a lot of cool events that occur in the theaters.
11:49
Dustin: And yeah, just a great place to share a drink with folks. There's constantly food trucks there.
11:57
Dustin: And my favorite is the location of our weekly trivia.
12:02
Dustin: So I believe you've joined us a time or two for that as well,
12:06
Dustin: Marvin, in your ventures out this way.
12:08
Marvin: Yeah, I think I've played two or three times at this point.
12:10
Dustin: Yeah, yeah, you're our ringer. Every time you come to town, you bring the pop
12:16
Dustin: culture knowledge with you.
12:18
Marvin: Yeah, but it's...
12:19
Dustin: The deep dives.
12:19
Marvin: Well, it's the Gen X pop culture, you know. Don't ask me about Katy Perry songs
12:24
Marvin: or we're going to be in deep, deep trouble.
12:28
Dustin: We need the full rounded experience of the breadth of knowledge, so you bring it.
12:33
Marvin: Yeah, well, I try. Right. But, you know, the cool thing at Frontier is like,
12:36
Marvin: you know, they've got the copier cards for the beer. Right.
12:38
Marvin: So, you know, you can try a lot of different beers, you know,
12:43
Marvin: so if you don't want to, you know, drink one big giant, you know,
12:46
Marvin: juicy IPA, you can try a lot of different things.
12:48
Marvin: I think it's really kind of a kind of a cool way to do things.
12:52
Dustin: Yeah, there's just, you know, you get that card and just kind of scan it and
12:55
Dustin: you can pick the size glass you want.
12:57
Dustin: You know, it's it's it's a cool premise. And yeah.
13:01
Dustin: And then again, like just they've got a ton of really cool events.
13:04
Dustin: You know, we're coming into fall football season. And so they always they always
13:08
Dustin: have the big games on weekly on the big screen. So that's always a ton of fun.
13:14
Dustin: And so, yeah, just conveniently located downtown. And, you know,
13:18
Dustin: we love making our weekly haunt, at least a weekly haunt on Wednesdays for trivia.
13:25
Dustin: So it's a great place, great people, and just a great environment.
13:29
Dustin: So we're very happy to have them here in Casper and get to go hang out there
13:35
Dustin: when we get off the water.
13:36
Marvin: Yeah, so I have to say, because we got a big game coming up,
13:38
Marvin: right? We got the Cowboys and the Browns.
13:41
Dustin: We do. They are like opening the season for us. Yeah, big one.
13:44
Marvin: So are you going to watch the game there? or are you going to watch it at Fuzzy's?
13:48
Dustin: You know what? It's a big one for me. I'm actually going down to Boulder,
13:53
Dustin: to the Boulder Browns Backers Bar to watch it there.
13:57
Dustin: So it's a big one, so we're making the most of it.
14:01
Marvin: So they're going to be flying in pierogies and everything to DIA, right?
14:06
Dustin: You know, the Boulder Browns Backers Bar does a phenomenal job.
14:11
Dustin: So they actually get some Cleveland beers imported there, and they've got the
14:16
Dustin: pierogies, they've got the brats, they've got the mustards.
14:18
Dustin: It's the home away from home.
14:22
Dustin: So, yeah, for the season opener, we're definitely making the journey down there to enjoy the first game.
14:28
Marvin: Yeah, you'll be singing Sweet Caroline by the beginning of the fourth quarter.
14:34
Dustin: Maybe, maybe.
14:35
Marvin: Yeah, so before I let you hop, you want to let folks know how they can book
14:40
Marvin: you and get out on the water with you before you head back east?
14:43
Dustin: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's still a couple of dates left for the fall.
14:46
Dustin: So folks are wanting to strip streamers like Paul was describing,
14:51
Dustin: or if you want to get in our killer dry fly action, you can give our shop, The Ugly Bug, a call.
14:57
Dustin: Area code 307-234-6905.
15:03
Dustin: If you'd like to reach out to me directly, you can find me on Instagram at Dustin James White.
15:12
Marvin: Well, there you go. Well, listen, folks, we're heading into a long holiday weekend.
15:15
Marvin: I want everyone to have a happy, safe, and relaxing Labor Day.
15:18
Marvin: And as I always say, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few.
15:22
Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Dustin.
15:25
Dustin: Tight lines, Marvin. Thanks so much.