Nine tips to improve your catch ratio.

1. Learn to cast. Take a lesson. Practice. Getting help is probably the hardest thing to do. I think it's an ego thing.
2. Be Obscure. Be drab, not bright, and not dark. Various dun colors are best. Even one dun color on your whole body makes you a large threat. I will use a line from a Bob Scammell article where he says" almost every fishing vest you see is made of such shiny, almost white cloth, that it is one of the better fish repellents, ranking with those clunking stream cleats and the white "Tilley" hat." I met a man on the Big Green, from half a mile away I could see him wherever he went. He had a white hat, a white shirt, and a almost white vest. If I could see him from half a mile, the fish definitely could see him. Did he catch fish? Yes! His saving grace was that he got very low and fished very slow. I mean he was sitting on the ground and waited 30 minutes or more at one hole. Even if you are drab, stay low and move slowly. Be a heron! The Big Green is a hard stream for me. When I stay low, my catch goes up dramatically. My best fish there is a 15" brown. I cast 20 feet of line on the ground and 3 feet of line on the water. I got a a foot drift and a strike. Getting back from the stream is the same as being low. Remember the 10-degree angle the fish sees out at. Stay low in a boat too. And don't be heavy footed on the shore or in the boat. Sound travels a long way in water and soil.
3. Minimize false casting. Fish react to things overhead. That is where most of their predators come from. To avoid this:Lay the line you'll need beside you and pick it up on the back cast and shoot it out. Cast to the side to dry out the fly.Cast sidearm to keep the line low.4. Pay attention to leaders. It is the closest thing to the fish, other than the fly. Regardless of the color of your line, the longer your leader, the better chance you have of catching a fish. There is less to see in the air and you will get less drag. Use as light a tippet as you can manage. Learn to manage lighter tippets, in the air and hooked to a fish. Leaders obviously have to be attached to the fly line.
5. Wade only when you have to. Look in the water before you get to where you are going to wade in . Some nice fish may be lying where you are about to walk.
6. Watch our line and tippet as far out as you can as the fly sinks. Many takes are on the drop. Learn to fish without an add-on indicator. The line is an indicator. Grease it and it becomes more visible. At times it will add to your take. Learn to use an indicator, at times it will catch fish that aren't biting on a line without.
7. Beat the wind-knot. Slow down, let your back-cast roll out. The heavier the fly, shot, indicator, etc., the more important this is. Speed does not catch fish. Speed kills opportunity. What do you want to be doing? Catching fish or undoing knots?
8. Learn to find fish. Understand prime and feeding lies. Learn what fish eat and when on a few of the streams you regularly fish rather than scatter fishing every new hot spot.
9. Learn about bugs and other bait. It is not necessary to learn Latin. Learn the who-what-where-and-when of the bug world. Some mayfly nymphs don't just float in the current. They swim. Trout expect them to swim. Would you eat a steak that was moving when you expect it to be motionless on your plate? Trout aren't any different. Lack of motion or the wrong motion and you catch fewer fish. Check the waters where you fish, not just at the entomology meeting. Try starting up a bug think tank. Note: it is illegal to remove insects from streams in Pennsylvania, although I doubt if anyone would fine you for it.