Podcast: Fishing Still Waters from Shore, with Thomas Larsen

[Interview starts at 45:47]

This week, my guest is Thomas Larsen from the Orvis Outfitters team.  Thomas is a stillwater expert and gives us some great tips on how to find trout, as well as how to target them when you don’t have the benefit of a watercraft. Maybe you don’t have a boat, can’t afford a raft, or backpack to high mountain lakes—this podcast is for you.

In the Fly Box, we’ve got lots of good comments and questions, as I have been gone for a couple weeks and the mailbox is filling up.

• Thanks from a listener for turning him onto the Griffith’s Gnat dry fly.
• Euro nymphing seems just too efficient for me. Am I being irrational by fishing less effective indicator rig?
• A customer relates a great trip he had with Orvis-endorsed Brown Trout Flyfishing.
• What are the five or six “must have” items (after getting a fly rod outfit) you suggest for someone new to fly fishing?
• Please give me five or six recommended flies for starting out.
• I had a snapping turtle eat a trout as I was landing it. What effects do catch-and-release fishing efforts have on fish populations?
• For fishing the beach and canals and creeks in Florida or the Carolinas, what is the best all-around fly line?
• I want to tie my own leaders. What sizes of tippet do I need? And can I tie my entire leader with surgeon’s knots?
• Is a wire shock leader too much for lake trout? And what flies should I use?
• How long does it take trout to recover after a spell of warm water?
• If I can only catch trout on Rapalas and crankbaits but not on flies, what other types of flies should I try?
• Great advice from a beginner on how much he learned about fish behavior by fishing dry flies.
• If fish can always see tippet, why is there a difference in effectiveness between tippet sizes?
• What should I do if my fly line is cracked?
• What is the difference between a standard clinch knot and improved clinch knot?
• Why, when I catch multiple fish out of the same run, is the third or fourth fish often bigger than the first ones?
• A guide attached my leader to my fly line loop with a clinch knot and the coating on the loop cracked. Should I cut off the loop and put my leader on with a nail knot?