Customer Reviews

Fly-Fishing Stillwaters for Trophy Trout

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Denny Rickards fished over 300 lakes before writing his book. He clearly lays out the differences between flyfishing streams vs. lakes. He then presents a thoroughly researched systematic approach that even those new to the sport can use. He has honed his list of must have flies down to 6 that produce all over the world. There are many new insights here that will help you get into a lot more fish. If you have not done well on lakes in the past, this is the book for you! A wonderful read.

Denny capitalizes on showing the reader how to quickly catch trophy trout in stillwaters. He cuts to the point quickly and delivers the qickest, most successful methods in catching trophy trout with a flyrod. Denny also explores the essentials for finding trophy waters and locating trophy fish. A must read book for this century's crowded water flyfisherman

This book offers some great tips on techniques and patterns for catching stillwater trout. Although the book is targeted towards catching "trophy" trout, I've found the techniques described work equally well for trout that are of less than trophy status. Most of my stillwater fishing is on hike-in lakes in the mountains and after reading this book I now almost exclusively fish clear intermediate lines with one of a handful of patterns. In terms of presentation, Rickards calls for experimentation with speed of retrieve on full sinking lines. In terms of flies, Rickards advocates suggestive patterns rather than any sort of 'match-the-hatch' philosophy. He argues that stillwater trout are attracted to the life-like movement of the fly rather than a specific match. Since reading this book I primarily use either the AP Emerger or Seal Bugger with a clear intermediate line and a variety of slow retrieves. The results have been fantastic!

Excellent book! I also have the video. After reading the book I started practicing Denny's methods with the Seal Bugger. I couldn't believe it, I have been actually catching bigger trout than I did before. I know what to look for now. It just took some changes which are explained by Denny. I highly recommend this book.

This books proceeds like a bullet point outline. The information is presented in such a logical order that it makes this book it a quick read. The bullet points are so well fleshed out (no unncessary verbiage) that I wish all books of this type were written with this as a model. Also, the photographs are beautiful.

Denny Rickards is the primer authority today on fly fishing lakes. His system, outlined in his breakthrough 1997 book, Fly-Fishing Stillwaters for Trophy Trout, and updated recently, shattered all the myths I had picked up over 50 years devoted to fishing lakes. Denny's conclusions on the habits of large predator trout, their habitat, and the methods and flies and gear you must employ to successfully take large trout from lakes are essential to your understanding before you undertake to head out with a float-tube over your shoulder. They work. His book is thorough and well written. I heartily recommend Denny's methods for serious fly fishermen who are interested in taking large fish on a fly rod. That's one of a sportsman's greatest thrills. It takes perseverance, but with the Rickard's knowhow, it can be done without racing around the lake in circles. Walwyn Trezise, Dubois, Wyoming.

Denny Rickards is to trophy trout fishing what Bill Murphy and Bill Siemantel are to trophy bass fishing. All these authors have the phenomenal ability to distill the myriad of techniques available to a few, highly productive, time-proven patterns. Rickards' approach is deceptively simple. First, he recognizes that the bulk of giant trout in lakes eat subaquatic foods. Big subaquatic foods. That means baitfish, leeches, damsel nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, and scuds. By focussing on these prey items, and heretically not focussing on dry fly action, you will immediately be targeting larger fish. Next, he points out that big fish move. They hunt. If you don't intercept them, you're fishing empty water. Finally, Rickards points out that stillwater techniques (especially choices of line, rod, and leader) are neglected by most anglers used to simply trolling a floating line with a wooly bugger attached. Indeed, this was eye-opening to me as I am guilty of having done just this for years...Of course, one of the most exciting parts of Denny's book is his discussion and illustration of his own fly patterns, devised after years of experimentation. At first glance, they appear similar to existing flies. But each one has been fine-tuned to capitalize on certain details of action, appearance, or presentation. I have tied up a variety of his patterns and hope to start flinging them at water just as soon as is possible. And that's one of the very best parts of this book. It gets you motivated and excited to blast out to your favorite stillwater and start fine-tuning your presentation to really target the trophy fish that most flyfishers are simply not catching. Highly recommended!!!

Denny's approach to stillwaters will change the way you fish. Using Denny's method, your learning curve will increase exponentially. His discussion of stillwater fishing is very comprehensive. He will teach you everything from how to tell whether a lake can support trophy trout to what types of retrieves work best and when. I don't fish on the West Coast, but his techniques still work on the brook trout at home. My only qualm is that there are a few editorial and grammatical issues. Great book!

I am amazed by the five star reviews of Rickard's book by other reviewers. These folks are obviously novice fly fishermen and I wonder if some of the reviews were written by Rickards or one of his pals. This book offers not a single original thought, is filled with anecdotal "research" at best and simply rehashes stillwater dogma. For Christ's sakes just look at the weights he assigns to some of fish in the photos, often obviously higher than the fish's true weight. He draws people in with the "pretty" photos of large fish and then the b.s. begins. He harps about the need to make 70' casts which are easy enough to make, but fails to mention that many hits at that distance are not felt by the angler. The intersection of the fish and the fly can happen at any point during the stripping process, however he states that the bulk of the hits occur at distances in the 60 - 70' range. The primary asset gained from long casts is simply covering more water. He offers next to nothing in terms of entomology. No mention is made of the calorie intake achieved by trout from feeding on the various food sources available. He does not discuss the life cycles of the various aquatic insects he mentions. All entomology is kept at the most basic informational degree possible. This lack of useful information carries over into his baitfish "discussions" as well. He tends to touch on a subject and seldom covers the subject in any kind of depth. Little information, if any, is offered about the proper way to set a hook on the hit or the consequence of doing it improperly. Obviously he has never heard of the strip strike which has been utilized by saltwater anglers for decades. By utilizing the strip strike the fly remains in clear range of the fish if the hookup fails and a second hit can often occur since the fly is not moved more than an inch or two as opposed to the "standard" stike method which moves the fly further and that movement is not natural to an insect or baitfish attempting to elude the fish, not to mention it's elimination of most tippet breakage on the hit. No mention is made of the fact that baitfish are usually hit at the tail in order to stun them and then turned in the fishes mouth in order to swallow head first, a strip strike deals with that situation. He barely touches on the importance of keeping the rod tip at or even a bit below the waters surface on the retrieve. Absolutely no mention is made of the proper fighting techniques once a large fish is hooked. This is an incredibly important part of the entire process and again, he does not even bother to mention it other than saying to give the fish it's head on the first run after hookup. Jeez Denny, have you ever heard of turning the fish with side pressure or fighting the fish at a low arm/rod level for better control or doing a good portion of the fight with the rod tip in the water (when in a float tube) to minimize the effects of herky-jerky runs and head shaking (which large trout are very prone to do), etc. After bringing the fish to net he advocates netting the fish head first which is the most damaging way to net a fish, tail first is the least damaging method. While I'm mentioning nets, take a look at the nets in use for the "photo-ops", rough knotted nylon with very large mesh - very damaging to a trout of any size. And no mentiion at all as to the proper method to revive a fish for release. I could go on and on about how inadequate Rickards book is, I mean Christ even the editing is atrocious. Suffice to say this book is no more than endless self-promotion of Rickard, his flies (which are incredibly poorly tied) and products he endorses. Cortland Fly rods for crying out loud!!! Also, lets remember that a large portion of his "trophy" fish are caught in pay to fish waters such as Sugar Creek Ranch, Monster Lakes, etc. where the odds of landing a trophy are greatly enhanced regardless of ones skill level. Spend your money wisely and don't be drawn in by Rickard's "pretty" photos of large fish. Seek out Big Trout: How And Where To Target Trophies by Bernie Taylor (compare bibliographies - Taylor 14 pages and with actual scientific research papers cited or Rickards 11 authors cited on 1/3 of a page, kind of speak for themselves don't you think). Another fine book to read is Lake Fishing With A Fly by Cordes and Kaufmann, both books filled with scientific research as opposed to Rickards anecdotes. Trust me, there is not an original thought of any significance in the entirety of Rickard's book. He should be ashamed of himself.