10 Tips for Summer Fly Fishing

Summer fly fishing

Maybe you think hot summer is a bad time for fly fishing. High temperatures, low water levels, people swimming or canoing in the river and many other bad effects for fly fishing. It is better to sit in the shade and sip a beer or a long-drink. Is that really true? Let's try to look at the summer fly as an opportunity to try something a little different. We have selected a few basic tips for you to really enjoy fly fishing in the summer.

• Take a fly fishing early in the morning or late in the evening - it really pays to get up. The summer days are longer than spring and autumn, so we can fish already from 5 o'clock in the morning. So we avoid astonishing daytime temperatures, and we will fly fish at a time when the fish are still active and the nature is fresh. In some  Czech rivers (Vltava, Otava), the morning fly fishing is the only way to avoid ubiquitous canoeists. It will be similar in the evening - the activity of the fish will gradually increase and we can enjoy our sport until we can see at least the artificial fly and tangles on the tippets.
  
  
• Take a fly fishing early in the morning or late in the evening - it really pays to get up. The summer days are longer than spring and autumn, so we can fish already from 5 o'clock in the morning. So we avoid astonishing daytime temperatures, and we will fly fish at a time when the fish are still active and the nature is fresh. In some  Czech rivers (Vltava, Otava), the morning fly fishing is the only way to avoid ubiquitous canoeists. It will be similar in the evening - the activity of the fish will gradually increase and we can enjoy our sport until we can see at least the artificial fly and tangles on the tippets.
  
  
• Focus on corse fish - in the summer months, corse fish activity is often significantly better than salmononid fish (trout or grayling). Corse fish can often be caught during the day and, for example, carp fly fishing is best on warm days when the sun is high above us.
  
  
• Go to the mountains - if you are near a mountain range, spend the summer with fly fishing on the upper mountain streams. The temperature in the mountains will be several degrees lower, the water more cold and the fish more active. Salmonid fish are often hungrier (and less picky) in mountain streams because they do not have as much food as their colleagues in the streams and rivers in the lowland.
  
  
• Try secondary trout water - if the water gets hot in the rivers and the fish are not active, then we still have the secondary trout waters under the reservoirs. Some rivers are fed by cold bottom water from the reservoirs, and insects will be hatched here according to rules other than the in the ordinary streams. Thus, fish activity will be different at those waters during all year and the hot summer is not the exception.
  
  
• Reduce AFTMA and reduce fly size - in summer months at low water levels, we need to lighten our equipment. With a AFTMA 5 fly rod and fly line, fish in low water will laugh at us. Do not be afraid to significantly lighten the fly rod and fly line to AFTMA 1 or 2, the tippet should not exceed a diameter of 0.10 mm, and the size of the flies can also be minimized. Who did not try the super light fly fishing yet, summer is the right time to do so!

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• Leave your waders at home - if the temperature is over twenty degrees (Celsious) outside and you will fly fish in shallow rivers, then I highly recommend exchanging your waders for sneakers and flies vest for a lanyard (I call it necklace). Go out light!
  
  
• Fly fish on imitations of terrestrials - have you ever hunted for imitations grasshoppers, ants, wasps, beetles or damsels? In summer, there is a lot those creatures everywhere. Just look around, choose the right fly (terrestrials) and try your luck by fishing near the river banks.
  
  
• Take your children to fly fish - summer is the ideal time when you can introduce your kids to fly fishing. You do not have to invest in expensive clothing and waders (see tip 6) and you can easily combine fly fishing with other summer activities - a picnic by the water, swimming or fly fishing can be a pleasant stop during a long car trip. I gave the first fly fishing lesson for my youngest during the tent camping right at the river and it was a great choice!
  
  
• Go fly fishing abroad - it's probably not a surprise for fly fishers any longer, but not everywhere the fly fishing season begins in April and ends in November (this is how the fishing season is define in my country). There are many destination where fly fishing during the summer months is the best! For example, in Slovak river Váh, the summer months for river fly fishing are much better than spring ones. This will be the case for fly fishing in the north of Europe and for fly fishing in the high mountains too. Just find local information and you will surely find plenty of fly fishing areas in the summer months.
  
  
• Keep track of water levels and weather changes - there are really rivers and streams that are not great during the hot summer months for fly fishing. Everyone has to check what are the minimum flows on the selected river and then it is no longer difficult to monitor the water levels on the Internet. At times of storms and summer showers, it pays to trace where it rains and to try to guess what impact this will have on the local river flow. It may happen that one district will be without water but another on the other side of the mountain will have the ideal water conditions and the fish will have a great appetite after the rain or thunderstorm.

Well, you still want to sit on the summer terrace and sip a beer? If so, I'm glad you at least have read this article till here. And when discussing the liquid consumption, do not forget to keep the drinking mode in summer during fly fishing. You can not drink water from most of the European rivers, so make sure you plan your water supply properly. But I would have already started the other top 10 summer fly fishing tips article with that...