Fly Fishing Tips: Cast To Ledges

The Madam is most successful fished starting in late summer and keeps catching fish until the first hard killing frost. This is the time that the terrestrials are in the “autumn of their life”. They are at both their biggest and at their weakest. Cool or cold nights slow them down. Breezes, that pick up as cool night turn to warm days, shakes them lose from their grasp on the leaves and branches. With each breeze more terrestrials falls from the trees and splatts down on the water.

We have a saying about how to fish The Madam. Our ditty is, “Cast to the Ledges, the Edges and Up Under the Bushes. Many areas of Missouri's rivers, such as the upper Current and the North Fork of the White, are lined with limestone bluffs or lower out cropping ledges. These areas are the Ozarks’ under cut banks. An underwater evaluation of these areas would reveal a myriad of nooks and crannies. Add to this that portions of bluffs and ledges are continuously falling into water to provide cover and that there is seepage of cool ground water entering the river and you have the perfect spot for a big trout to lurk. White, are lined with limestone bluffs or lower out cropping ledges.

For most of the year, “Cast to the Edges, means casting to current seams. But, during terrestrial season “Cast to the Edges” means casting to the edge of the stream. Often to within inches of the bank! Fall trout seem to know that the biggest and the best mouthfuls of food originate at the river’s edge. And they are there waiting to gobble them up.