Video: “Splitting the Uprights” on Two Big Brown Trout

Dave and Amelia Jensen, of Jensen Fly Fishing in Alberta, have produced another episode in their “The Bank” series of instructional videos, just two weeks after the previous one. I guess being in New Zealand gives them lots of material to work with, huh? Here, the couple encounters two gorgeous browns holding very close together. The challenge is how to catch them both, rather than just one of them. Here’s Dave’s description:

It’s a cool day. The daytime high is +12C with rain showers and wind that picked up to 100kmh. We start the day on the inside of a fast run with two dark “smudges” holding to rocks. These “smudges” are brown trout in colder water, less active as the light mayfly hatch has yet to begin and, being early in the season, there are no terrestrials about. The trouble is the two fish are only going to take a nymph and that they are less than a rod length from one another. Getting the cast flies high enough upstream to allow the nymph to sink deep enough to get the lower fish’s attention while not spooking the upper fish nor inducing a downstream take from it is the issue. We wanted to try to take both fish. The discussion centers about that goal.

There are great lessons here dealing with how to assess a situation before making the first cast, how to horse a fish downstream, and how to chase a fish when necessary. As you’ll see, Amelia is a fearless wader.