You can have the perfect cast, match the hatch precisely, and be on a top river and still manage to get skunked. The problem stems from one of the most overlooked fly-fishing skills, reading water. Walking along the bank of a river you want to find holding areas and feeding lanes that will likely produce fish. When I talk about holding areas, I’m referring to structure that provides suitable habitat for fish to hide from predators and slows the current to reduce energy use for the fish. Typical structures that provide ideal habitat for fish are boulders and logs. These structures are often very visible and should be concentrated on when blind casting on a river or lake.

The other area to look for when your trying to figure out where the fish are in a river are feeding lanes. The most obvious feeding lanes are referred to as runs. A run is a slower deeper section of water that usually occurs after a rapid or faster current. A typical run has some white oxidized water at it’s head and then deepens, providing a channel of faster water down the middle. Fish can be feeding anywhere in the run, but the head and the end of the run usually holds the most fish. Runs are usually very productive because the fish that inhabit them are actively feeding. If you fish from the bottom up to the head of a run it is possible to catch and release multiple fish in a very close area.