Shoreline reeds, shallow shoals, drop-off ledges, deep open water –it hardly matters. Boatmen and backswimmers don’t show much favour to one or the other. If you’re in shallow water, use a foam pattern on a slow sinking line. If deeper, try a fast sink. If you have only a floating line, perfect, use a beadhead boatman pattern, or even a Prince Nymph.
The most exhilarating days start out flat calm. Watch for the bugs dropping down to the lake, they are easily noticed as they look like large raindrops hitting the water’s surface. The hapless insect sits, resting for a moment before diving down into the water using paddle-like legs to dart a few inches at a time. At this point you notice a solitary rise, then another, and another. Random. Then it’s a series of abrupt slashes at the reed line. Finally, entire sections of lakes erupt in a violent outbreak of feeding trout.
Eager and anticipating, you fan-cast from the boat. Covering all the active fish is challenging, guessing which direction the fish is going to hunt next. But you try anyway. You present to a rise on the left, letting the line sink, using a jerky hand-twist with some quick strips to bring the fly back in an arc. Nothing. You cast right, where another fish has boiled at the surface. The floating pattern is resting, waiting for the wet line to drop down a couple feet, but it doesn’t make it that far.
The take jars your wrist, and it surprises the hell out of you. Fish are caught at the end of the retrieve, at the start, and while you’re waiting for the line to sink down. Stay alert all the time.