TXH2Oman wrote:
I have found that wading upstream, vs. down, is always a good idea. Most ambush predators (e.g., bass) orient head into the current to nab whatever the flow is bringing them. I've been told a cast at about 45 degrees to the current is most effective.
For the same reason, eddies, rocks, brush, points -- anything that disturbs the flow of the current or creates a "slack" area is often a likely lie for warmwater fish. All animals like to conserve energy (see, honey? It's not lazy, it's biology!) so if a fish can hang out just outside the current without working too hard and grab something floating or swimming by, that's a bonus.
Also, in my clear rivers, if I wade downstream I'm often dirtying up the water ahead of me.
As a fly fisher in Colorado, fishing rivers and creeks is what we do. I do what TXH20man said. But I may cast against the banks first, just to see if anything is lurking there, and then start casting upstream and out a little farther doing a fan cast to work everything from the bank to the center, and then I move upstream a few feet and do it again. But you don't need long casts, 20 feet will do plenty. But keep moving upstream, that way you're behind the fish so they won't see you.
I'd throw some big dries, because of the depth of the water I'd want to get their attention, like a #14, to me a #14 is big, but it's all relative, lol, but a #14 or even a #12 bushy dry like a Royal Wulff or a Delaware Adams. But I fish for trout, so you may want something different for the fish in your area, not that those flies won't work, they will, but you may have something better.