I thought I would open a thread for people to share their stalking tips and techniques with everyone. I know that people do things differently and thought it would be interesting to see what people do, and i'm sure there is a lot that can be learned. If you are interesting in sharing these tips, then please post away. Would be interesting to see what flies people used, how they fish them? Where they fish?

Err..easy really..wade upstream carefully, keep eyes focussed on river and fish whatever seems appropriate on the day.Which this year has been klinkhamers , Adams and copperhead nymphs.

Its a long time since i last had a day on a bigfish stalking water ,but in the days when avington was the realm of Sam Holland my go too patterns were much smaller than the standards of the day 16s dressed slightly short with plenty of lead and hi viz so i could watch them down .
worked well with fish that had seen all the green beasts and walkers mayfly nymphs .
Get the fly down to their eye level and as close too their nose as possible , that needs accurate casting and well tuned tackle especially your leader !
Fish for the fish that are looking for food ,you will see fish that are busy going somewhere else ,these rarely take the fly ,the ones that mooch along sucking in the odd bug as they go are the ones you will take ,with little effort
Then there are fish who are just switched off lying there "asleep" as it were , they wake up sometime so worth coming back and looking for him /her again .
Guess a lot has changed since those days ,we did not have triploids then !

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

Errr I think Brownieseeker is talking about stillwater fishing for large stock fish... As such could admin merge the avington/Dever thread with this one as most of the info is on there..? Admin?

I know alot of what was said on the dever/avington thread relates to stalking however I felt that opening a thread dedicated to stalking big trout would prove useful to people who wanna chase those big doubles.

Spent many a happy hour on my hands and knees ..semi hidden behind a bush or thick grasses..flicking a fly/nymph at stubborn rainbows..What did I use ? a nymph like pattern devised for such occasions ..it was actually named '

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[sorry bout that ! ] ...'when All Else Fails' ..simply copper wire wound on as a body complete with a red varnished head,..the idea was to flick the 'nymph' directly into the trout's cruising route or directly in front of his nose if he was laid up..most times the 'nymph' would be taken on the drop...without any tweaking of the line..
Works river or stillwater too...If you would like to go to http://aghilliestale.com I have an article there that I wrote on an old method of stalking called 'Bushing' you may find this of interest.

Kindest Regards
John

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:51 PM ----------

Spent many a happy hour on my hands and knees ..semi hidden behind a bush or thick grasses..flicking a fly/nymph at stubborn rainbows..What did I use ? a nymph like pattern devised for such occasions ..it was actually named '
...'when All Else Fails' ..simply copper wire wound on as a body complete with a red varnished head,..the idea was to flick the 'nymph' directly into the trout's cruising route or directly in front of his nose if he was laid up..most times the 'nymph' would be taken on the drop...without any tweaking of the line..
Works river or stillwater too...If you would like to go to ghillie/salmon/seatrout/flies/water/cast/tackle/skate/countryside/play/ I have an article there that I wrote on an old method of stalking called 'Bushing' you may find this of interest.

Kindest Regards
John

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I did wonder. Ho hum- having tried both I will stick with wild fish thanks, not silly lumps in tiny ponds.

On the subjest of stalking flies, I notice that a lot of the stalking bugs seem to have eyes painted on the weighted head. My stalking bugs are similar to everyone elses it seems but I don't paint eyes on. Does anyone think this makes a difference or not?

I've never tested that difference methodically. However, sometimes the eyes help me to see the fly, which helps me to fish it effectively and strike more accurately. So if it makes no difference to the fish, those improvements for my benefit will give it an overall advantage.