Hi all, I am needing some advice and help on trotting. I have not long got back into fishing and I'm basically starting afresh knowledge wise as before I went with my Dad who knew what was what.

I am regularly fishing a small local river and had some success picking up Brownies by drifting a dry fly down the stream but for those day's where I need a change of tactics I have been advised that trotting some maggots on a float is a good bet.

Now I have never used this method, the only time I have used a float was launching a bubble for rainbows, so I need some advice on what my set up should be. The river is around a meter and a half to 2 meters across and between a foot and three feet in depth so it's not a massive body of water and as with most places the lack of rain means it's not exactly in spate at the moment. The guy who told me to try trotting told me I could used my fly rod and line with the float attached to the leader, weighted by shot and size 14 or 16 hooks. What kind of floats would be best for this as I was assuming an Avon or stick type would be best? And how long should you leave below the float?

any help on this kind of setup, and methods for trotting for trout, would be gratefully received.

Cheers.

dont give up on the fly that easy!

There are a million and one things you could try before going to the dreaded maggot.

Have you tried upstream dry fly or nymphing...basically its what it says it is. Turn around anf fish your flies upstream. all you have to do is keep in contact with the fly line as the flies come down stream. Besides its a more natural way to fish the dry fly on rivers. Fishing a dry downstream is kind of wrong as the line bows and pulls your fly in an unnatural direction.

Brownies...................MAGGOTS.........................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

Well that's sort of the way I have been fishing my fly, although I have been allowing it to drift as far down stream as I could before retrieving it.

Please don't think I am just abandoning the fly, far from it, I am just looking at it as a sometime alternative and a change of pace. Especially as there are some points that are unfishable with no way to cast the fly.


I kind of expected that.

I guess that you would have to on a fly fishing forum.............only joking, done it myself..................birdsnest

__________________
Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

maggots? MAGGOTS??

Don't worry, I trot for trout and grayling whenever the conditions call for it, nothing wrong with it .

I'm no expert by any means, but basically what you want as an average set up is about 4lb line, an appropriately sized stick float and a size 14 or 16 barbless hook. Use split shot to dot the float down until only the red tip is showing - there's usually a guideline on the side of the float, e.g. '6x4' would mean you need 6 no.4 shot to weight it down. Depending how fast or slow you want your bait to sink, you can either bunch all your shot together below the float, or as most people prefer to do, space the shot out for more even sinkage. As for depth, you want to be fishing either at the depth of the pool you are fishing, just on the bottom, or maybe an inch or so overdepth. You can measure the depth with a plummet - if the float goes under you're too shallow, and if it lies flat on the surface you're too deep. Do this BEFORE you put any split shot on your line.

Once you've sorted that, chuck a handful of maggots into the desired spot, then flick in your line with 2 or 3 maggots on the end to follow the free offerings downstream. Loose feed little and often, chucking in a few maggots every other cast. When you're fishing the most important thing, as with the fly, is that it must not drag. Keep mending the line, don't let it drag, let line off your reel to keep the float drifting down in a straight line, don't let it drag. If the float disappears, strike straight away - sometimes it's just the bottom, in which case allow the drift to continue. If you're constantly catching the bottom, try fishing an inch or two shallower.

At the end of the day the best thing to do is practice - as with anything, when you start getting it right, you'll get into the fish. Oh, and did i mention that the key to success if not letting it drag?

You probably know some of this as it is, but i hope it helps to some extent

Tight lines
Eric

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"With my silken line and delicate hook, I wander in a myriad of ripples, And find freedom."
My Blog : yorkshireflynovice.blogspot.com

Cheers Eric, that's what I was after. I wasn't sure of a few things, mostly depth, float types and weighting but you cleared that up in that post. I had a look online but nowhere seemed to give a suitable set up for the smaller rivers.


Cheers.

In that depth of water I would be tempted to freeline..tie a small swivel in about 18 inches from your hook on which is mounted a worm hooked once through the tail end..simply flick the bait out and across the flow.If you are using a fixed spool reel keep the bail arm open and control the line peeling off the spool by applying gently pressure to the loaded spool..release line by simply lifting your finger off the spool ! allowing the worm to trundle off downstream...easy ! it will only take you a matter minutes to master this technique.Same principle can be applied using a fly rod and floating line..The real beauty of this method is that the fish feel no resistance whatsoever when taking the bait and presentation of the worm is as natural as it gets !Feel the bait hit a snag simply raise the rod tip and the worm will roll over the snag..at all times the angler is in total control .
Kindest regards
JOHN

Fished the worm in a similar manner to that before but never that exact way - I'll have to give it a try on a few wee streams as it sounds deadly to me!

__________________
"With my silken line and delicate hook, I wander in a myriad of ripples, And find freedom."
My Blog : yorkshireflynovice.blogspot.com

Can be be deadly in an average to low water..the other method rarely practised these days is upstream worming..same set up but casting upstream to likely looking lyes..add a small split shot if you need a little weight..yet again the angler is in full control..slowly wind in or strip line to keep in contact with the line not to motivate the bait ..beauty of this method as with upstream spinning with the smallest of spoons is that any fish noticing the bait trundling along the bottom or drifting mid stream has only a few moments to decide whether or not to take it..! or lose it ! takes are generally within the first few casts and can be hard ..fish will also follow the bait to your feet so be prepared !
Kindest regards tight Lines
John