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The drag free drift — a high percentage of the time, that’s what catches trout on top. So aiming for perfection on a dead drift sets the baseline. And if you get those great drifts, but they won’t eat it, try some animation. Think slight, small and subtle for those movements to the fly, and you just might fool some trout that are keyed in on motion.
Everything works sometimes. So we’re ready to try anything. But we spend the most time with tactics that produce with the highest rate of return. That’s just common sense.
Whatever fly you’re fishing, whatever bait, lure or fly you’re presenting across the spectrum of fishing, it pays to watch the food form you’re trying to imitate. In this case, watch how a mayfly rides on the water. Set up and watch rising trout for a while, and see if they’re eating caddis that are dapping and skittering, or if they’re eating something unseen, perhaps just under the surface. Also, get close to the water and see how a carpenter ant or a hopper behaves once it’s made the mistake and found itself on the water. How do these bugs move, and how do the trout respond? Imitate that with your fly.
My friend, Matt Grobe, joins me for this second episode in our dry fly skills series.
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly Fishing
READ: Troutbitten | That’s Not a Dead Drift
VIDEO: Troutbitten | Real Dead Drifts — Up Top and Underneath
READ: Troutbitten | Dry Fly Fishing on the Mono Rig
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Season Twelve of the Troutbitten Podcast continues next week with episode three. So look for that in your Troutbitten podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
In my experience, twitching a fly almost never works. The actual motions of a flitting sulfur dun or bouncing caddis is *almost impossible to duplicate. Can’t ever remember having a trout jump on a twitched beetle pattern either.
Bottom line, if you’re new to the dry fly game, burn this mantra into the fishy part of your brain: DEAD DRIFTS CATCH FISH. (Stole this from Mark Raisler of Headhunters on the Missouri) Regarding spinners and other deceased insects in the film, his other mantra is DEAD FLIES DON’T SWIM.
And those dead drifts are best achieved with LONG tippets (of almost any size). George Harvey famously stated that he could successfully fish #24 Trico patterns on 3X – if he used a tippet long enough.
Happy headhunting all!
It is fascinating that trout will sometimes single out our flies in a blanket hatch. I’ve observed similar phenomena where predatory fish will chase and hit a metal or plastic lure through a thick school of bait.
I like the theory that the fish are attracted to something close to, but not exactly, the natural. I want to change the saying to ‘almost match the hatch’.
Gary LaFontaine insisted that the best fly designs were a combination of imitation and attraction. I never argue with a genius.
Attract them, but don’t turn them away once you have their attention. That’s my take on fly design.
As a western angler I really appreciate Grobe’s perspectives. And coincidentally I’ve been using a similar large terrestrial with a soft hackle dropper most days this year, on a standard mono rig. But as I fish in a 1 fly only allowed area, I clip the hook off the terrestrial. So I use terrestrial exactly like a dorsey, but get extra “catches” when fish hit terrestrial…Bonus!