Which bank do you fish on?
It isn’t a trick question or some sort of sneaky form of angling psychoanalysis. In my experience, asking this question reveals one of three common answers:
- I have to fish this bank, because the other side is inaccessible.
- I have to fish this bank, because all of the likely spots are here.
- I have to fish this bank, because… I’ve always fished this bank.
The first one is valid. The other two? Not so much.
If you wade, there are some factors that may keep you on or very near the bank – irrespective of which side you’re on. Deep water, silty or muddy bottoms, and local regulations may force you to stay on the bank. Spring creeks or high-volume rivers are often best fished from the shore. Furthermore, one side of the stream may truly be inaccessible for one of the reasons mentioned above. Or, it could be that trees and other streamside obstructions make casting incredibly difficult.
But don’t sell any river short. There are “likely spots” all over any moving water. And routine? Unless you’re perfectly content with the same, always doing something the same way isn’t a recipe for discovery or improvement.
Here are three reasons why you should cross the river and check things out from the other bank:
Get a different drift. Presentation is about a whole lot more than which fly you’ve tied on. How and where that fly enters the water, compounded with where the attached leader is in the water, is going to determine what the fly looks like when fish see it. (Or, if they see it at all.) The same fly will do very different things depending upon if it is cast upstream, at a 45-degree angle, or perpendicular to the flow of the stream. Changing your orientation to the creek will provide new angles from which you can angle.
Get a fly in front of different fish. I’m always surprised at the places fish will hold. Even the most refined fish (wild trout, supposedly) will hold in shallow, open water. If food is available and they can quickly get to cover, fish will hold anywhere. Even the shallow or sandy side of the river has holes, undercut banks, or rocks that hold fish. In popular streams, fish will stage up on the bank that people usually fish from. Assuming no one has waded there recently, fishing the well-traveled edge may yield some interesting results.
Get a different perspective. At a minimum, if you walk the opposite bank from where you usually fish you’re going to learn something. Maybe you affirm your MO: the other side is the place to be. But you’ll gain intel. That is what is on the other side of the rock. There isn’t really a pocket worth fishing there. Now I can reach all the flies I’ve lost on those limbs. Perhaps you won’t even fish. The value will come from observation and fleshing out your knowledge of the water.
There are other reasons why you should explore the other side of the creek. But explore is at the heart of all of them, and essential to taking advantage of the three mentioned above.