He sat comfortably in his favorite camp chair, perched above what he always called “the swimming hole,” a deep pool formed by a sheer granite cliff that pushes the creek north into a sprawling meadow. He didn’t move or make a sound. Instead, he just watched.

It was meditative. Super chill. And he sat there for what seemed like hours. Just watching. Not moving much.

Doug and I were visiting the Elk River in British Columbia last weekend when a fellow in a drift boat opted to ignore the open channel on river right and float down the small side channel I was fishing. I was a little bummed — the oarsman could see me standing mid-channel from quite a ways away — but I assumed that he’d have the angler in the bow stop casting when they got close, and that they would slip behind me and scoot downstream a fair distance before they started up again.

Nope.

Most new fly fishers have a hard time telling good advice from poor. Sadly, the internet is full of questionable guidance from people who portray themselves as experts yet lack the requisite skills and knowledge. If you only fish a few times per year, or if you’re relatively new to the sport, it’s not always easy to know who to trust. With that in mind, I’d like to share ten tips that our instructors at the School of Trout offer on a regular basis.