NCYWG

Presenting the Dry Fly - PART I

You could select a dry fly from your fly box, dress it with floatant, and drop it on the river, unattached to line or leader.  It would float downstream naturally, like a real insect.  If you chose the pattern well and launched it so the current would take it to a hungry fish, the fish would probably rise to it.

You might derive some pleasure from fooling a fish in this way, but most people think fishing is more fun when they're connected to the fly by line and leader.

To quote Hamlet, "Aye, there's the rub."  Unfortunately that line-leader-fly connection causes two bugaboos:  It creates drag and It can spook the fish

Avoiding those two problems is the essence of good dry fly presentation.  So before we immerse ourselves into the details of what we want to achieve, we have to consider the details of what we want to avoid.

Drag
River currents are rarely constant in either direction or speed, so one part of your line and leader may be tugged quickly downstream, while a different part is being pulled slowly to the side.  The result is that the line yanks the fly this way and that, making it drift in an unnatural manner that we call drag.

Drag can be quite obvious, even for beginning fly anglers: your fly moves across the water, leaving a V-wake, or it doesn't move at all, or it just "doesn't look right."  Another way to spot drag is to watch the bubbles or flotsam near your fly: if they are moving at a different rate than your fly, you've got a problem.

Sometimes, however, drag is quite subtle and hard for humans to detect.  But fish, which spend their lives looking at stuff drifting down the river, can spot it.  They make quick "it's food/it's not food" decisions, and when they see a dragging fly they usually decide "not food" and look for something more natural to put in their mouth.

Spook
Your floating fly line is opaque, so a fish can see it quite easily and become cautious or even frightened by it.  And a cautious or frightened fish is unlikely to grab your fly.

Your leader is clear and puts distance between the fly and the line so that the fish's natural suspicions are diminished.  The clearer the water, the farther the fish can see and the longer your leader needs to be.

Unfortunately, no leader is invisible, nor are leaders perfectly flexible.  Thinner tippets are needed in very clear waters because they are harder for the fish to spot.  A thin tippet also reduces drag because it is more flexible and lets the fly move more naturally.

The Effects of Tackle Choices
Some anglers advocate "rules" for choosing a tippet based on how it affects casting the fly: thin tippets for small flies, large tippets for large flies.  There is logic to this because it's difficult for a small, limp tippet to turn over a large bushy fly, and if your fly and leader land in a pile you may spook the fish.

However, there are times to break the rules.  When fishing a size 8 October caddis pattern on a clear stream, you may need a 6X or 7X tippet to even get a strike.  Conversely, when you're presenting a size 20 Griffith's Gnat to a 2kg fish, you might want something more substantial than 6X.

Rod choice can also reduce the spook factor.  A three- or four-weight rod will present the fly more delicately than a six-weight.  On the other hand, line and leader may "die" when casting into a headwind.  Further, you might have real trouble tossing a bushy fly such as a big MacSalmon or Stimulator.  Rod and leader choices-like so many fly fishing options-are compromises.  There are guidelines, but no invariable rules.

Up-And-Across Presentation
The bread-and-butter dry fly presentation is an upstream cast that is at an angle across the current.  Casting up-and-across puts the line and leader off to the side where the fish is less likely to spot them.  "Spook" has been minimized, but the opportunity for drag is increased because the line and leader may pass several bands of current that are moving in different directions and at different speeds.

Fortunately there are ways of dealing with this drag.  Book chapters could be (and have been) written about each of them.  They briefly described below.

• Location, location, location.  Before casting, take a good look at the currents and see where the problems may arise.  By carefully positioning yourself, you can reduce the drag problems.
• Mending.  Mending means changing how the line lies on the water.  For example, if you mend so the part of the line that is in fast water is upstream from the part of the line that is in slow water, the two parts of the line have a chance to catch-up with each other, thus delaying the onset of drag.
• Shorter Casts.  The shorter the cast, the less line you have on the water, and the less chance there is for drag.
• Shorter Drifts. The longer your fly drifts, the more chance there is for the current to pick at the line and create drag.  So  shorter drifts are usually better.
• Reach Cast.  During the final forward stroke of your cast (when you are delivering the fly), reach your rod hand to one side.  This lays the fly line in a different place, which (you hope) has less drag.  A reach cast is a cast with a built-in mend.
• Wiggle Cast.  During the final forward stroke, wiggle the rod from side-to-side.  This puts "S" curves in your line.  As your fly drifts, the current pulls out the slack, delaying the onset of drag.  Wiggle the rod early in the delivery to put S curves near the fly;  wiggle it later to put the curves farther from the fly.

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Presenting the Dry Fly - PART II

This is the second part of a two-part article on dry fly presentations.  The first part discussed the causes of the two dry fly bugaboos, drag and spook.  It also described the up-and-across presentation, which is the most common dry fly tactic.

In this second part, four other dry fly presentations are discussed, followed by general tips for dry-fly fishing.

• Presenting Straight Upstream.  If you cast your fly straight upstream toward a fish, you minimize drag because fly, leader, line, and current are probably all moving at the same speed and in the same direction.  Unfortunately, you've maximized the "spook" problem because the line will drift over the head of every fish between you and where the fly line landed.
  However, there are times when an upstream presentation is your only option.  It works best if you cast so the fly lands about five feet upstream from the lie (or suspected lie) of a single fish.  This way the line lands behind the fish and is less likely to spook it.  Needless to say, your chances are better if the line lands delicately.
• Presenting Straight Downstream.  A straight downstream presentation is very effective on clear waters and other special situations.  To execute this presentation, face downstream and cast straight downstream from you.  As you release the cast, bring the rod back to you.  This will give you some slack line.  You can also give yourself some slack by wiggling the rod tip as you release the cast.  Follow the fly downstream with the rod;  the trick is to minimize the slack line so you can strike quickly, while not putting so much tension on the line that you slow the fly down.  Sometimes you can feed extra line through the guides and extend the drift, but this is hard to do without causing drag.  With this presentation, the fly reaches the fish before the line and leader, and drag is minimized.
  Note that because the line is directly below you, you can pull the fly right out of the fish's mouth when you strike;  therefore wait just a fraction of a second longer before striking so that the fish has time to close its mouth on the fly.
• Dapping.  Dapping is seldom-used dry fly presentation, but it can be very effective, especially when you're imitating hovering or egg-laying insects.
  Use very little line past the rod tip.  Hide behind a bush or similar obstruction and drop the fly in front of a fish.  Gently bounce the fly up and down so as to imitate an insect touching the water repeatedly.  (A mini version of tapping for Barbel - "klop", except that the fly does the tapping instead of using the rod tip as with barbel.)
• Skating.  Forget everything you read about drag.  The goal of this presentation is to create drag.
  Use a heavily hackled dry fly, such as an Elk Hair Caddis or a Stimulator that will ride on top of the water.  Cast downstream at about a 45-degree angle to the current.  Mend line upstream, and let the fly swing across.  You are imitating an adult insect that is running across the water, or a stonefly that is being blown across by the wind.

Other Tips for Presenting a Dry Fly

• Manage Your Line.  As the fly drifts back to you, slack line is created.  Leaving the slack on the water makes it difficult to tighten up on a rising fish.  It also can create drag.  So pull the line through your fingers to minimize the amount of slack line, but be careful not to get carried away and drag the fly.
• Pick Up with a Roll Cast.  A quick mini-roll cast can lift the fly off the water with a minimum of fish-scaring fuss.  As soon as the fly is airborne, start your back cast.  Avoid Sprinkling Water.  The fly line will have water drops clinging to it.  When you make your first forward and back casts, this water is shaken from the line and lands on the river.  On clear, still pools, this can spook fish, especially the ultra-wary fish.  If you make your first forward and back casts in one direction, then switch to the right direction for your final release, you minimize this problem.
• Emergers.  Virtually everything that has been said about dry flies applies to fishing emergers and other patterns that are just subsurface.  When fishing emergers, an occasional slight twitch of the fly can entice fish.  Watch the line-leader junction.  If it bounces or jerks, strike.  Many anglers strike too often when fishing emergers.  This causes the fly and fly line to rip through the water and frighten the fish.
• Lead the Fish.  Fish waiting for surface food need to see it coming.  The deeper the fish and the clearer the water, the farther they can see.  So your fly needs to land far enough upstream that the fish can see it coming, rise to it, and follow it downstream a short distance before taking it.
• Plan Ahead.  Before presenting the fly, think about where you're going to pick up the fly at the end of the drift.  Make sure it's not in a place that is going to spook fish.
• Refusals.  Sometimes-often?-a fish will rise to your fly, or so you think.  You see a splash near your fly, maybe a fish head pokes up.  But when you strike you feel no resistance.  If this happens a couple of times, then you are probably being refused: the fish rose to your fly, but at the last instant decided something wasn't quite right and turned away without taking it.  Refusals mean your pattern and presentation are close but not quite close enough.  Drag or tippet size may be a problem, but usually you need a different fly-one that's smaller or has less hackle.
• CDC Flies.  Do NOT dress CDC flies with floatant!  CDC flies should be fished au natural.  When a CDC fly no longer floats well, put it in a small container of powdered desiccant, such as Dry Shake, and shake it up.  This removes the moisture, and you're ready to cast again.
• Choose your flies by water type.  The rougher the water, the more hackle you need to keep your fly on top of the water.  Conversely, you don't need much hackle to float a fly on calm water.  When fishing slow moving, ultra-clear streams, a No Hackle may be the best bet.  But on a rough, boisterous river that fly will sink and you need a heavily hackled fly, such as an Elk Hair Caddis.

Article & Images courtesy of Scott Richmond