** 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...
** A VIDEO version of this article appears below ** Lately, I’ve been thinking about why trout accept or reject a fly. Specifically, when a trout does eat the fly, was it looking for a certain drift or a single position? Sometimes, a near-perfect dead drift of the dry...
** NOTE ** Video for The Lagging Curve Cast Appears Below. The Lagging Curve is a beautiful way to provide slack to a dry fly, and it's my favorite way to get perfect dead drifts to a dry fly rivers. I fish a lagging curve at just about any angle, using both a...
** NOTE ** Video for Mono Rig Mods Appears Below. I first wrote about the Mono Rig nearly a decade ago. And in the years since, the understanding and acceptance of tight line tactics has gained enormous momentum. Much of the education across articles, books and videos...
Admiring your casting loops makes you less accurate while also removing your focus from the water and your target. It’s a beginner’s habit that anyone can break in a couple hours, And it’s worth it.
Are trout opportunistic feeders? Sure, but it depends on the opportunity. We choose the fly and decide how to present it. We then pick what water will receive the cast. And to inform those decisions, it’s critical to understand what we’re asking the trout to do.
How big of an ask is it?
And how opportunistic do we expect the trout to be?
Here are a few examples . . .
This video breaks down all of the important things about hook set direction, hook set distance and hook set timing.
Setting the hooks is the most exciting part of the day. For all the time we spend planning, prepping, wading, tying, casting and drifting, it’s all in anticipation of that brief moment when a trout eats the fly. You fooled a trout. So, don’t screw it up. That’s why the hook set matters most. And planning for the hookset, thinking about how a trout might eat the fly and how we will respond, makes all the difference.
For over a decade, my Troutbitten friends and I have fished a small yarn indicator that weighs nothing, is extremely sensitive, versatile, cheap, doesn’t affect the cast, and flat out catches more trout than any other indicator we’ve ever used. What we call “the Dorsey” is a daily-use tool that is integral to our nymphing system. We mount it on a tight line rig or a traditional leader with fly line. It floats like crazy. It signals takes and information about the drift like no other indy we’ve ever used, and it’s an unstoppable fish catcher.
One rod length over and two rod lengths up. That’s the Golden Ratio. That’s the baseline, and it’s where trust in our drift begins. There are surely moments and situations that call for something different. But a good tight line style starts here, within the Golden Ratio of nymphing . . .
The Lift and Lead is a cornerstone concept for advanced tight line nymphing skills.
Lift to allow the fly to fall into place. Lead to stop it from falling and to keep it gliding through the strike zone.
For certain, the lift and lead is an advanced tactic. But if you’re having success on a tight line for a few seasons now, you’re probably already incorporating some of this without knowing it. And by considering both elements, by being deliberate with each part of the lift and lead, control over the course of your flies increases. Efficiency with weight improves.
The path is more predictable. And more trout eat the fly . . .