On this river, fly-fishing can be a game of inches: If your offering is an inch too far from feeding fish, they won’t give your fly a second look. The primary reason is there are so many bugs that the trout don’t need to move to eat. Like most predators, dominant trout have both stamina and the capacity to move very fast, but that doesn’t mean they want to work any harder for a meal than they have to.

The result is that fly-fishing the Caney is technical fishing at its finest. I have fished numerous other tailwaters in our great state and none test your abilities like the Caney Fork.

If you intend to chase fish with your fly rod there, you better get used to thinking very small. Other rivers give up plenty of trout on flies in the No. 12 to No. 16 size range, but not the Caney Fork. Most days, you will be fishing ultra small flies, size 18 to 24, under indicators.

Paying attention is paramount: These fish are smart and will spit your fly back out faster than you can imagine. Be ready to pick that rod tip up very quickly.

Since the fishing pressure is quite high on the river, smaller leaders and tippets are in order. Generally, start with nothing larger than a 5X leader and tippet combination. Most days, you will end up with a 6X tippet tied on. To those who say, baloney, a fish can’t see the difference, you are sadly mistaken. While on the river recently, I was using 6X mono tippet right beside Jim Mauries who was using 6X fluorocarbon and he was banging fish three to my one. Those fish would see my mono tippet and not eat. They couldn’t see the fluorocarbon and would eat. When you fish the Caney, remember the trout here act like trout!

Before choosing a fly, I like to watch the river for a time. Often you can tell what insects are in abundance, and the fish will tell you where to start every time. If they are simply “pushing” water, try a midge pattern or possibly a scud. If they are in the shallows and appear to be feeding, try a sow bug or minnow imitation.

But if you see them actively chasing food, that means it’s time to break out the streamers like Woolly Buggers, Muddler minnows or small deceivers.

Once you decide where to start, don’t stop watching by any means. The fish will change entrées in a heartbeat. On one trip, for example, I’d been fishing a zebra midge early in the morning and having good success with it. Then, as soon as the sun came into view, the trout just seemed to shut down. After a frustrating period and couple of expletives, I saw the reason: A blue-winged olive hatch was beginning, and the trout were switching gears to take advantage of it. If you are lucky enough to see that kind of hatch, you are looking at a chance to get in on some of the mid-South’s best dry-fly fishing!