skinny

[edinfly]

What, exactly, do people mean when they say "fish the skinny water"?

What is skinny water and how do you fish it.

Thanks!

 

[ryansheehan]

Shallow water.

 

[afishinado]

^ yup..shallow water.

You can fish dries or lighter weight/smaller nymphs.....or you do both at the same time!

Shallow sections are great places to give a dry/dropper rig a try.
Tie on a dry fly. It's best to select one that floats well and is easily visible to you. Using floatant usually helps float your dry.

Tie on a tippet to the hook bend and attach a lightly weighted nymph to the end of the second tippet. The nymph should be small and/or light weight as not to pull under your dry fly.

The length of the tippet for your nymph depends on the depth of the water. 1.5X the water depth is often a good starting point.

The dry fly on the surface may get eaten, while it also acts as a strike indicator for hits on your nymph drifting below.

Trout are extra spooky in shallow water since they are more exposed to predators. Stay low and wade carefully upstream, if you need to wade at all. Fish the water closest to you first and work your way out. Focus on getting a good drift on every cast and be careful not to line the fish (casting the line directly on top of the fish).

It's often surprising how many fish you can catch in "skinny water" if you are rigged up properly and use some stealth.

Good luck.

 

[edinfly]

Thanks for the advice--can't wait to try the dry-dropper rig next time I'm out.

So the term skinny has nothing to do with whether the water is riffley/broken v smooth/calm? A shallow riffle is still considered skinny water?

 

[ryansheehan]

Sorry, I missed the part of the question about how to fish it, wouldn't have given you a two word answer. Afish nailed it on the head, if I'm hitting the skinny water it will be with a dry dropper 8 or 9 months out of the year. During the winter I will be tight line nymphing the slow skinny water. Often you will see fish warming themselves in water so shallow most people skip out of habit. To answer your second question, yes a shallow riffle is still considered skinny, however, in the cold temps I'm not looking to fish water moving that quick.