Where and When to Use the Floating Fly

Before going further into the details of casting and fishing the dry fly it would be well to consider at some length the question of the best times and the most favorable places when and where the angler would be wise to depend solely upon the floater. That the fascination of dry fly fishing is such that many fly-fishermen elect to practice no other method under any and all conditions goes without saying, but the fact remains that under average American fly-fishing conditions the floating fly is sometimes at a disadvantage and the average American angler may well accept this fact with good grace, using the dry or sunken fly turn and turn about as the occasion determines. In this I do not wish to be understood as holding any brief for the wet as against the dry fly for any such reason as that "bigger bags" may at times be killed with the wet fly than with the dry—it is merely a question of a few good fish taken by fair methods under the prevailing conditions. If these may be taken by dry fly casting, so much the better; if not, then assuredly the average angler, whose fishing trips are few and to whom a moderate success on the stream seems very desirable, may have recourse to the wet fly without losing caste. That, at times, nothing can be done fishing dry is a fact easily susceptible of proof.

Personally I have never so fully enjoyed fly-fishing as I have since taking up the dry fly, which I have now come to use almost exclusively and often when I know perfectly well that more success would attend the use of the sunken fly. This, however, I take to be a strictly personal matter; my fishing opportunities are many, and although I am on the stream a great deal (during the last ten years at the very least four days a week throughout the season) it is only infrequently that I go out with any great desire to "catch fish." To the general run of trout-fishermen, for the reasons stated above, I would not advise the exclusive use of the dry fly; if, on the other hand, the angler elects to practice this method to the exclusion of all others, that is his affair—and a matter for congratulation.

It would seem that the ideal conditions for the dry fly are somewhat as follows: A clear, smoothly flowing stream, whether fast or slow being immaterial if the surface is not too broken; the stage of water should be normal, although at the lower levels, as the season advances, everything is in favor of the dry as against the wet fly; finally, insect life should be fairly abundant on the stream and the trout feeding more or less at the surface on the natural fly.

In the early days of the season, when the stream is apt to be in flood and the water very cold and more or less discolored, the wet or sunken fly is plainly indicated. Until, with the progress of spring, air and water have grown warm, and the bright sunshine brings on the natural ephemeridae, the fish are usually ground-feeding, or feeding in mid-water, and will rise only infrequently to the fly fished upon the surface. At such times the fly caster who holds to the employment of the dry fly is doomed to disappointment.

In fact, it would seem that fly-fishing under these conditions should be done more along the lines of bass or salmon fly-fishing—not with the idea of simulating even approximately the natural insect food of the fish but rather with the purpose of exciting the trout and inducing them to strike by the use of a glittering or highly colored fly which, fished considerably beneath the surface, arouses their curiosity or anger or may be taken for a small minnow. This style of fishing with the fly is distinctly on a lower level than the correct imitation of the natural floating insect by means of the dry fly; nevertheless, in fairness to the many fishermen whose days on the stream are rare and eagerly anticipated with attendant hopes of some practical success, I cannot but advise the use of the sunken fly under the conditions named or when, at any time during the season, somewhat similar conditions prevail.

In an average season the dry fly man may confidently expect success on suitable water from about the first of May to the last days of the open time. The trout streams are now clear and at or below the normal stage of water; the temperature of the water is rising steadily; the observant fly-fisherman will note the natural ephemeridae abundant at intervals over and on the stream—and there is no sight in nature (at least from the writer's viewpoint and, I fancy, from that of all other trout fly-fishermen) more interesting or more wonderful than a good hatch of duns. With the advance of the season and the usual gradual falling of the water, conditions ever grow more and more in favor of the dry and against the wet fly.

I could easily cite numerous instances which have occurred in both my own experience and in that of other anglers which go to prove the effectiveness of the floating fly on low, clear water, late in the season, when the wet fly is usually ineffectual. Without, however, going into narrative detail, it should be sufficiently obvious that, under the conditions named, a very delicately dressed floating fly, in appearance quite similar to the natural ephemeridae common to the stream, attached to a practically invisible leader and riding down buoyantly on the surface, with wings erect, in the exact, jaunty manner of the natural dun, is far more apt to deceive the fish than two or more wet flies, shapeless and draggled, of dubious coloration, pulled across or against the current in a manner never followed by the natural insect. Wherever a fly may be floated the dry fly is distinctly the thing for late spring and summer fishing.

Much has been said and written concerning the character of the streams favorable for the employment of the dry fly—that is, as regards the natural characteristics of the water itself, whether fast or slow in current, smooth or broken, shallow or deep, and so on. The dry fly having originated upon the placid currents of the south of England rivers, it is only natural that the impression should prevail that a floating fly can be used effectively only on a slow stream. The practice and experience of American fly-casters has thoroughly proved this an erroneous theory. It may be truthfully said that the dry fly may be successfully used upon all except white water.

It is not the rate of the current which determines the suitability of the floating fly to any given stream; wherever the surface of the water is unbroken the dry fly works well, but where white water prevails, although the angler may persist in the use of the dry fly, actual dry fly fishing is impossible, the fly can only be made to float for an infinitesimal length of time, is almost immediately drowned by a wave or drawn under by a whirlpool, and the result is a hybrid sort of angling in the nature of wet fly fishing with a dry fly.

The point has been made that even under these conditions it is best to use the dry fly on the ground that, dry or wet, the floating fly is materially, in form and coloration, a better imitation of the natural fly than is the average wet fly. Under like circumstances the natural insect acts in a similar manner, that is, is drawn under the surface in broken water and carried here and there by conflicting currents. For some time it has been my custom to use dry flies for wet fly fishing, but I would emphasize the fact that fishing a drowned dry fly in white water is hardly genuine dry fly fishing and that any resultant success must be accredited to the wet fly method. Any statement to the effect that the dry fly may be used in the rapids of any trout stream where white water is the rule must be taken with a grain of salt and with due allowance for the enthusiasm of the man who makes it.

In any stream the swift runs where the water is smooth may be very effectively fished with the dry fly; taking an average of American trout streams, excepting the smaller rocky, mountain brooks (generally a succession of shallow, rough rapids with comparatively few smooth places) it may be said that a fly may be quite successfully floated over probably three-quarters of the water comprised. By smooth water I do not wish to be understood as meaning absolutely flat water—the floating fly will ride a wave or a succession of them with surprising buoyancy; but if the crests of the waves are broken into miniature "white-caps" then the fly is soon drowned. The wet fly, or wet fly methods, should be followed wherever the water is of the latter description. The writer's own custom when fishing a stream wherein smooth and white water alternate constantly is to use a single dry fly, a coachman or Wickham's fancy, casting dry or wet as the nature of the stream may seem to render expedient.

In line with a general discussion of the times and localities when and where the dry fly is indicated it should possibly be noted that dry fly casting, as the more clever method and designed particularly for the purpose of angling for educated trout, should be favored over wet fly fishing on any stream which is whipped a great deal by wet fly fishermen. That the trout of such a stream grow "gut shy" and exceedingly canny and, at best, when the stream is clear and natural insect food somewhat abundant, rise reluctantly to the wet fly, is axiomatic. In view of the fine tackle, the finesse, and the fidelity to nature afforded by the dry fly method it would seem that no angler could for a moment doubt the efficacy of the floating fly under such circumstances. On the other hand, I believe—although practical experimentation has never yet been possible—that a skilfully fished wet fly, on a stream where dry fly fishing has become the rule, might, on occasion, by the very novelty of the thing, be made to do wonders.

Finally, as regards the general question of when and where to use the dry fly, let me emphasize the fact that, for success, the sportsman must have confidence in the floater and use it constantly wherever he may consistently do so—that he must not consider his box of dry flies as merely supplementary to his familiar, old-time book of wet flies, but must give preference to the dry fly method, consider himself, in fact, a dry fly fisherman, and have recourse to the wet fly only when his common fishing sense advertises the fact that the floater is not the thing for the time being.

Sporadic experimentation with the dry fly when the wet has failed, although frequently successful in its purpose, is not a true test of the efficacy of the method when followed consistently, for the degree of true sport which the dry fly is capable of affording. Of all forms of angling, the phrase "it is not all of fishing to catch fish" is most true of fishing with the floating fly.

Coming now to the question of when and where to fish the floating fly on water evidently suitable therefor, in view of the fact that the American dry fly caster of necessity usually fishes the water rather than the rise, it is evident that the fly-fisherman must depend upon his knowledge of trout haunts and habits in the determination of this matter. Given a stream fairly abundantly stocked with trout, either fontinalis, the native speckled brook trout, fario, the brown trout, or with rainbows, where the most, the best, or any trout will be found, is to a considerable extent a matter of time and temperature—notwithstanding which the careful angler, and in particular the dry fly fisherman, will proceed to fish all the water except such as may be known to be barren of trout.

In general, trout will be found at the head and foot of riffles and rapids; at the head and tail of pools; in the lee of rocks in swift runs; under shady, shelving banks and boulders and similar "hides"; particularly in warm weather, where small, cold, spring-fed brooks enter the trout stream; and anywhere where the set of the current, as in little bays and on the bends, is such as to collect insect food in quantity. Really the angler need only remember that trout require cold, moving, and aËrated water, especially brook trout, and the same thing is true of brown trout in somewhat lesser degree.

To enlarge upon the matter further would be impracticable here. In point of fact, stream experience alone will enable the angler to spot confidently and with precision the places where a good trout may be lying. Each trout taken by an observant fly-fisherman adds to the angler's sum of knowledge regarding "where the trout hide"; it would seem that a mental picture of the place is retained subconsciously—the trend of the current, the character of the banks and stream-bed, and where, in relation to some prominent object, such as a large boulder or possibly a sunken log, the trout rose; all these and other details are noted and mentally recorded, and eventually the angler, by the correlation and association of these mental pictures, comes to recognize instantly, almost to a matter of inches, the places where a rise may be expected. That an experienced fly-fisherman can tell "almost to a matter of inches" where a trout will rise may seem, to the casual reader, to be putting it rather strongly. However, inquiry of some sportsman of many seasons' experience with the fly-rod will definitely settle the matter one way or another.

While, indeed, the character of American trout streams is such as to definitely discourage fishing the rise purely, it cannot be too strongly emphasized that the dry fly-angler, while fishing the water, should constantly be on the lookout for a rising trout. Time and time again, while fishing a good pool or run where the rise of a trout could be noted, the writer has spotted rising fish to his very practical advantage. In this regard it might be well to note the fact that a rising and feeding trout creates very little disturbance on the surface of the stream, and does not, in accordance with the popular idea, leap above the surface; sometimes there is a slight "plop," and at times a little spray thrown, but the fish very seldom shows itself, and twenty trout could rise within the vision of an inexperienced and inattentive angler without attracting his attention. Upon glassy, still pools the subsequent widening circle of ripples tells the plain story of a rise; in a current, however, the actual rise must be seen—and often is if you are looking for it.