Some of my favorite conversations on the show aren't about one secret fly or one magic river. They're about how people actually fish, week after week, and why they keep going back. In Episode 134 I sat down with Katherine and Graeme Mulski, a father-and-daughter team out of British Columbia who spend a huge share of their season together on BC's stillwaters. Graeme grew up on the Fraser and came to fly fishing through his own father's old cane rod; Kat came in through gear fishing and grew into the fly side alongside her dad. What came out of it is one of the most practical stillwater conversations we've had, wrapped in a pretty great story.
Match the Line to the Depth, Not the Other Way Around
Graeme's strongest piece of advice was simple: fish the line the situation calls for. If the fish are deep and you need a sinking line, put on a sinking line. Don't try to fake it with a sink tip and split shot. Every hack you add changes how the fly sinks and how it moves, and on a lake where the fish are sitting in a narrow band of water, that matters more than almost anything else.
Kat described her own system the same way. She leans on a floating indicator line for chironomid work because it casts cleanly and holds a suspended fly where she wants it. She saves her intermediate (the clear "ghost" lines she loves) for lakes where she knows the depths well, and she avoids it on water with a heavy algae bloom where it just collects gunk. The ecology of the lake that day and its depth decide the line. That's the right order of operations.
Build the Leader for the Job
Both of them are big believers in purpose-built leaders. The rough rule they shared: a non-tapered leader under an indicator, so the fly drops straight and hangs at a consistent depth, and a tapered leader when you're casting and turning over a fly on a moving line. On sinking lines they'll shorten things up and change the butt section so the fly tracks with the line instead of riding up above it. Buy leaders made for each job or tie your own, but don't use one leader for everything.
If They Won't Eat a Leech, They're Not Hungry
Kat's personal stillwater rule got a laugh, but there's real logic in it: on any given day, if the trout won't eat a leech, they're probably not feeding. Her core box is just leeches in different colors, lengths and hook sizes, plus a handful of seasonal staples like a black leech with a pumpkin head and caddis emergers. She admitted to fishing six trips in a row on the exact same egg-sucking leech without changing the leader. When something keeps working, you don't have to talk yourself out of it.
Graeme is the opposite. He changes flies constantly, which is why his discarded-fly pile in the boat is always bigger than hers. Between the two approaches there's a lesson. Have a confident starting point, but read the lake. Look at what's moving in the shallows, check for small and large leeches, and watch for hatches before you commit.
Don't Ignore the Chironomid
Kat made a point any lake angler should take to heart: chironomids make up the bulk of a stillwater trout's diet, so it just makes sense to fish them. She told a funny story about reading a stillwater chironomid book in the boat during a windstorm, finding diagrams for setting a midge rig by water depth, and realizing how much it would have helped the season before. If you're new to lakes, a little homework on chironomid depth setups will pay off fast.
Boat Craft: Double Anchors and an Early-Season Story
BC lakes get windy, and both of them insisted on double anchors. Anchoring bow and stern keeps the boat from swinging so your indicator stays put and your flies hold their depth. That's the difference between a dead drift and a fly dragging all over the place.
They also told the story of an early-season trip where they arrived to find the lake still partly iced over. Kat held the pram steady with an oar while Graeme broke ice at the bow by hand for over an hour, and he had blisters for days afterward. Add a forgotten lucky first rod and a banana in the boat, and you have a trip that's now family legend. It's a reminder that ice-off timing is a guess, so pack for colder conditions than you expect.
Why It Matters: Fishing Together
What stuck with me most was how they fish as a team. They split up the planning, trade off who's rowing and who's anchoring, keep friendly score, and give each other a hard time. Graeme talked about listening to the "liquid silence" of the water, and Kat said fishing is simply what makes her feel well. Both also agreed on one thing for newer anglers: take a casting lesson. It saves years of bad habits.
Gear
If this episode has you thinking about lake fishing, start with the right lines for your local water: a floating line for indicator work plus an intermediate or full sink. Your local fly shop can match those to the lakes you'll actually fish and set you up with a box of leeches and chironomids. For the technique and rigging side, our Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing eBook is a solid companion. And for those cold ice-off mornings, grab an FFIP Angler's Coffee Mug and a Brown Trout Hoodie.
