Look for transitions -- mixing waters, bubble lines or seams where two currents come together. The faster water is moving a lot of collected feed, while the slow water gives the fish a place to hold that doesn't require much energy to maintain.

The combination of holding in calm water right next to faster flows allows the fish to expend the least amount of energy but still be in a position to collect protein. Hedges, edges and ledges: Fish the grass lines, seams and dropoffs that provide feeding lanes for trout.

Banks of streams are often good holding lies for fish, especially if they contain shade, overhangs or bank-side structure. Banks provide fish with protection from their enemies and provide food in the form of terrestrial insects: grasshoppers, beetles, ants and others.

Trout get keyed in on these terrestrial tidbits, especially later in the summer. Cast parallel to the shoreline so that your entire retrieve is in the edge zone. If you feel a "bump," a hesitation or a tug, set the hook!

Even if you are sure it was just a rock, strike. Flyfishermen miss many fish bites because the fish will suck in a fly, mouth it and spit it out all in a second or two.

If you eliminate all of the depth that the fish are not using to feed, and all of the water that does not provide an easy soft-water hold near a bug-packed feeding lane, you can concentrate your efforts to that 10 percent of the stream where you are likely to catch fish.

DECEIVING THE FISH: IMITATE TRUE BUGGYNESS
It's difficult for some people to wrap their minds around the idea that a trout will sometimes ignore something good to eat, like worms or salmon eggs, and instead take a hook covered with fur, feathers or foam.

The key to getting the trout to take the artificial food is that the fake fly must imitate the food source that the fish is currently feeding on. That's why trout anglers are always trying to "match the hatch." If they can't, they know they probably won't catch fish that day.

Trout know how aquatic insects behave. Most of these insects aren't able to do much, if any, swimming. Instead, they float, tumble or rest in a dead-drift, that is, they are solely moved by the water currents and use no propulsion of their own. Any insect imitation appears more life-like, more real, if allowed to dead-drift with the current.

This means that the angler needs to keep his line and leader from pulling or dragging the fly through the water.

To present the fly dead-drifted to the trout, you could move to a casting position where your fly can float naturally to the fish. If the current starts pulling the fly line through the water, then the fly will also be pulled in an unnatural way. That's like sounding an alarm to nearby trout.

When you bait-fish, you throw the bait out to sit on the bottom or dangle from a bobber. But in fly-fishing, you have to allow the fly to move in a realistic way along with the flow.

It's not easy to get the hang of. But the reward is worth it.

THE BITE AND BEYOND
You've studied the water and determined generally where the likely converging feeding lanes are. You've put your fly upstream and have dead-drifted it through the lane. You see a flash in the water, and you see your line has changed directions. Lo and behold, a trout has taken your fly!

Now what?

A bait-caster would wait and let the fish swallow the bait. A plug- or lure-fisherman would start reeling because their fish typically hook themselves with their strike.