** NOTE ** Find the Companion YouTube Video Below

Here’s a look at fishing dry flies in faster water — in more complex currents — because there’s a unique set of skills to get true dead drifts in the fast water and pocket water. The drifts are shorter and harder to achieve. But some of the best fish hang out in faster stuff, and if you give them a great presentation you have a really good chance.

It’s a fun challenge, and if you can get great drifts here, you can do it anywhere.

In this video, I cover three main skills that help meet the particulars of fishing dry flies in fast water. Those skills are also detailed below the video, in the article, with links to further Troutbitten resources.

Here’s the video, and the article continues below  . . .

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Lagging Curve and the Crash Cast

Tension to a dry fly causes drag. So the goal of any good dry fly angler is to keep the leader and tippet from influencing the dry. A Harvey Dry Leader is my favorite tool for building slack into the whole leader — not just the tippet section — for excellent presentations that feature slack and grace in all the right places.

The slack leader design of the Harvey leader is the perfect match for a Lagging Curve cast. There is simply not better way to get excellent drifts on a dry fly. Josh and I did a full video on the lagging curve.

ARTICLE/VIDEO: Troutbitten | The Lagging Curve Cast – Dead Drifts for Days

That curve achieves in the air what many anglers attempt with a mend after the fly hits the water. The Lagging Curve is a pre-mend. In faster water, the Crash Cast is a modified version of the Lagging Curve, where all of the slack hits the water fast, with the dry fly landing immediately after. The Crash Cast is therefore a Lagging Curve solution for even the fastest water.

These two casts are fundamental, baseline skills. They are not specialty casts. They are all the time cast in the fast stuff. Otherwise, the following skills do not matter.

READ: Troutbitten | The Crash Cast
READ: Troutbitten | Dry Fly Fishing – The Forehand and Backhand Curve

Lay It Down. Pick It Up

Deliver a Crash Cast to the water, and then pick up the extra, leaving only what is necessary on the water.

In the fastest currents, you can be as close a you like to the trout, especially when you’re behind them. That proximity allows you to keep unnecessary line in the air rather than in the current, allowing for a true dead drift at close range.

Importantly, the pick up happens fast, right after the delivery. Build up the slack with the Crash Cast, and then pick up the extra.

The Hop Mend

Good mending happens only with a slack line. If the line is already straight, the dry fly will move. So after delivering the fly in fast water, with a Lagging Curve or Crash Cast, it’s easy to mend the slack and place it somewhere else.

The Hop Mend is perfect for this. These are short, quick mends that lift a length of leader but not the fly. Multiple short Hop Mends are more effective than one large reach mend because we can be more precise with where the line will be places in the complex currents.

I often Hop Mend all the way through the drift, just to keep the leader and tippet from being buried by the currents. Even though I always grease the leader in fast water, it can still be pushed underneath by swirls and whitecaps.

ARTICLE/VIDEO: Troutbitten | The Hop Mend

Do It

Remember that fast water, pocket water and complex water can be some of the best dry fly water out here, if you have the right approach.

Fish hard, friends. And have fun out there.

Find all of this stuff in action in the Fish and Film videos on the Troutbitten YouTube channel

VIDEOS Troutbitten | Playlist | Fish and Film

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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com