“I need to be able to feel my lure working,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I use braided line quite a bit. I can feel the lure hitting rocks on the bottom. I can feel the action of the lure. I can feel when something is not right, like when I have some weeds or a small stick I may have snagged.”
For his approach to casting, if you are facing upstream or upriver, he will cast out at about a 10 o’clock angle. “The angle of the cast is important, but there is no exact way of doing it,” he said. “Over time you will get a feel for it, what works and what doesn’t.”
Learning to read the water is also important and there are times when stickbaits work the best for the type of fishing he enjoys. The first two things Rowcliffe looks at is depth of the water (how high or low it might be based on recent rains or snowmelt) and the water clarity itself.
If the water is clear, he likes to go when it is snowing or raining. It helps to diffuse the light under those clear conditions. He will use a smaller lure. This is also a time when colors are a bit more important, preferring to use more natural colors like green, green and black or something like Yo-Zuri’s Baby Brook or Brown Trout patterns.
“More important than lure color is the presentation of your bait,” Rowcliffe said. “Sure, I have some favorite colors when the water is stained blue, gold and black, black and blue, and black and silver for a variety of species, but the lure must look natural. It needs to appear to be an injured baitfish. Make sure your lure is working correctly. The current in any given stream can really influence how the lure will work. You have to adjust your retrieve accordingly.
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