Hudock Capital had the honor of hosting nationally known author and guide, two time U.S. Fly Fishing Champion and former Team USA Fly Fishing Coach George Daniel. George has become a very proficient angler and has been successful on the national level for competition style fly fishing. George focused his presentation on teaching some of the techniques that helped him succeed while competing.

One of many helpful tips from George’s presentation was to use tungsten style putty to add weight to fly leaders. By using putty one can easily add or subtract weight as the stream conditions change from one hole to the next. He also suggested spreading your weight out like a chain instead of putting split shots up against each other. Using weight like this is generally not permitted in competitions. To fish flies deeper, competitive anglers use heavily weighted fly patterns with tungsten bead heads.

George suggested anglers use a long nymphing rod such as a 10’ 3wt to keep as much line off the water as possible. This will allow the flies to drift down the stream with less potential for drag. George shared some stories and tips for having the least amount of movement as possible when approaching the stream. A lot of times, anglers will spook fish with their approach or aggressive casting styles.

Another great tip was to use a highly visible sighter line attached to your leader to detect takes by trout. As your line floats down the stream you should see the sighter line making a ticking motion as the flies bounce off the bottom. As soon as the line straightens out or stops twitching set the hook! George also likes to use New Zealand Strike Indicators for softer flowing water as it lands with less disturbance on the water.  For faster flowing water, George suggested using two small strike indicators of different color as a means of knowing when to mend the fly line.

George believes that having good technique and presentation of the fly is more important than the fly pattern used. With that being said, his top go to flies for fishing Pennsylvania streams are Higa’s SOS, Flashback Sulphur, Perdigon, Rainbow Warrior, Blow Torch, and Micro Rubber Stone.

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