How to Fish the Floating Fly

Presuming that the angler has outfitted correctly and that he is a fly-caster of average ability, and further assuming that the stream he is on is at least fair dry fly water—which he will fish upstream manipulating the fly with whatever skill he may command with the purpose of imitating the action and appearance of the natural fly floating down on the surface—success, then, is predicated wholly (apart from the question of the right fly at the right time) upon the manner in which the fly is fished. Under this head—how to fish the floating fly—there are many points for consideration, of which not the least in importance is the matter of drag.

Drag occurs when the artificial fly travels at a rate different from that of the natural fly in the same position—either faster or slower or with a tendency to move across or contrary to the current. It is caused by conflicting currents which exert dissimilar forces upon fly and line. The natural dun coming down without restraint, of course, from line or leader, is affected only by the current whereon it floats; the artificial fly, attached to line and leader, several feet of which must often lie upon the surface, is subject not only to the rate and direction of the current upon which it floats, but also—unless the angler so handles his tackle as to prevent it—to the force and direction of the currents which play upon the line and leader.

Thus, when the fly is so cast that it falls upon still or slow water while the line is allowed to rest upon swift water, the artificial fly will at once drag rapidly across or over the still place in an utterly unnatural manner. The natural fly would rest quietly upon such a place, or, if there were a slight current, float slowly downstream.

The foregoing is an extreme case, cited merely with the purpose of making clear exactly what is meant by the expression "drag." Ordinarily when drag occurs the conditions are rather more subtle and complicated than in the foregoing example. Conversely to the above, when the fly falls upon swift water and the line upon slow, the natural downstream course of the fly is retarded. Again it often happens that unless the sportsman notes clearly the trend of the currents whereon fly and line will rest, he may cast a taut line over a place where the currents are actually moving in contrary directions, the fly may rest upon a "set-back" (a current moving upstream) while the line is carried downstream with the general trend of the stream, in which case, if the natural current is the stronger and a taut line is thrown, the fly will drag upstream in relation to the current whereon it floats, and across and generally quite contrary to the action of the natural insect in the same position.

In the matter of preventing drag I think that the one rule above all others for the sportsman to observe is this: Before making a cast—by all means before casting over a rising fish—study carefully the trend of the currents which may affect your line and fly. In other words, the best way to alleviate drag lies in the ounce of prevention which may be applied before the cast is made. It is generally possible to cast over any given place or over a rising trout from a number of different points; one of these will be found to offer the least chance of drag.

The necessity of obviating drag, so far as possible, arises from the fact that a shy trout, feeding on the natural ephemeridae, is not apt to rise to the imitation—however good—which comes over it in an unusual way. A feeding trout, possibly rising from a fixed vantage point wherefrom it can easily see and capture the duns floating down on the surface within striking distance, will, as a rule, rise only to the artificial fly which floats in an exactly similar manner to that of the natural flies which come within its vision.

The novice should also bear this in mind and religiously observe it: Avoid any upward or backward motion of the rod at the instant when the fly falls upon the water or immediately thereafter. In line with this it may also be said that no matter how fast the current may be, the angler should never begin to strip in the line until the fly is well started on its downstream journey. The seasoned wet fly-fisherman, upon his initial attempts at casting the dry fly, will doubtless find that he has an habitual tendency to raise the point of the rod at the moment when the forward cast has been completed and the fly has just fallen upon the surface of the stream; if this is done, the fly is at once pulled under the surface—drowned—and the habit is one which must be constantly resisted.

The same may be said of the tendency to begin stripping in the line prematurely while it is still taut; the slightest pull upon the line at this time is at once communicated to the fly and either drags or drowns it. The proper and strictly necessary procedure, then, for the dry fly-caster is this: At the completion of the forward cast hold the rod absolutely motionless for a moment until the fly, floating down, has created more or less slack line, in accordance with the character of the water over which the cast has been made; then slowly bring up the tip of the rod or carefully strip in the line, or both, bearing in mind that to float the fly successfully there must always be more or less slack line between rod-point and fly.

As above noted, the best way to prevent drag is to first study the nature of the water over which the cast is to be made, eventually casting from the stand which seems most favorable for the cast's coming off well. If, however, it is absolutely necessary to cast so that the fly will fall upon a slower current than will the line or upon a swifter run than will affect the line, the only remedy is to cast a slack line—the fly will then float for a greater or less distance without restraint. If the fly is cast upon a still or slow place while the line rests upon swift water, drag will not set up until the slack line has passed downstream and begins to pull upon the fly. In the opposite instance, when the fly is on a swift run and the line in slow water, the cast being so made that the slack lies in the swifter current, the fly will float without drag until it has taken up the slack, when the line will retard it. How, when, and where drag will occur is not only a matter of the set and strength of the currents acting upon fly and line, but also dependent upon the point from which the angler casts in relation to the currents—obviously a matter which cannot be detailed in a manner to cover satisfactorily even a few of the situations where drag is likely to occur. The angler must practically solve each problem of this sort for himself, as it is presented in the course of the day's fishing. But in practically every case the slack-line cast, varied to suit the occasion, is the best way out of the difficulty.

The usual way in which the slack-line cast is made may be described as follows: The angler, in lengthening out his line, strips from the reel a number of feet more than will be necessary to reach the spot where he desires to place the fly; then, the line having been extended, in making the final forward cast the rod is momentarily but decidedly checked when half way, or possibly a little more, through the forward swing, with the result that the line is doubled back upon itself and the fly settles down upon the surface at the end of a considerable loop of line and leader. The motion of the rod should be stopped only for an instant, and the rod should then be carried down to its usual position at the end of the forward cast, about parallel with the water. A variation of the above method of casting a slack line, one which the writer has found very useful at times, while essentially similar to the method described, differs somewhat in that a loop of slack line, drawn from the reel by the left hand while "lengthening-out," is prematurely released, when making the last forward cast, the result being that the extra line does not "shoot" out straight, but comes down curved and slack upon the surface. To make the slack-line cast and place the fly accurately—as when casting to a rising trout—is a matter of much practice, and, it may be admitted, sometimes equally a matter of much good luck.

Although the matter of striking a rising trout will be treated in a subsequent chapter, it should perhaps be noted here that the seasoned wet fly fisherman, accustomed to fishing a fairly taut line, will soon learn to strike his trout with the loose line most often used in dry fly casting with really fewer resultant misses than is the average when using the sunken fly and a tight line fished downstream or partly down and across. That the average angler whose dry fly knowledge is confined wholly to a greater or lesser familiarity with the literature of the subject, seriously doubts his ability—or that of any man—to strike his fish successfully with a slack line is, I am sure, a fact; and this identical thing, possibly more than anything else, is responsible for the hesitancy with which the confirmed wet fly fisherman turns to the dry fly. In point of fact, the trick is soon picked up and the angler finds his percentage of trout well-hooked really larger than when wet fly fishing.

Two of the chief reasons for this are that the dry fly, being a very close imitation of the natural insect in appearance and (when properly fished) in action, is generally taken by the fish with far more confidence than is the wet fly; as a result fewer fish are merely foul-hooked by chance or simply pricked, and unless the fly is missed entirely—even the natural fly is missed at times—the trout is generally well-fastened. Also, inasmuch as the dry fly is fished upstream, and, as a rule, the angler is below the rising fish, the direction of the strike is toward the fish and not away from it, as is frequently the case when casting the wet fly downstream. That the tendency toward establishing a satisfactory connection is greater in the first instance should be obvious. The angler has only to learn to disregard the slack loop in his line—which, of course, must never be allowed to get absolutely beyond control—and to strike with certainly no more force than he has been accustomed to use in wet fly fishing.

To recapitulate, before going on to discuss in a more general way the matter of fishing the floating fly, it would seem that the chief points for the dry fly-caster to observe are somewhat as follows: To use a single floating fly generally selected as to size and color with regard to the natural ephemeridae common on the stream at the time; to cast the fly upstream, allowing it to come down after the manner of the natural insect, favoring the horizontal cast to insure, as far as may be, cocking the fly; to avoid immediately raising the point of the rod or stripping in line at the finish of the forward cast, but to hold the rod motionless until the fly is well started on its downstream course; finally, to avoid drag by casting a slack line.

In general, dry fly-fishing as done in America naturally divides into fishing the water and fishing the rise. The dry fly caster when fishing all the water should proceed much after the manner of the wet fly fisherman: the angler who has been accustomed to fish upstream with the wet fly need not alter his general methods in the least, save as regards floating the fly and avoiding drag. As a rule, it is best to follow or wade along the left bank, looking upstream, as this will give you an unobstructed right-handed horizontal cast.

As the dry fly man works upstream and the trout habitually lie facing the current, the careful and quiet angler seldom needs to cast a long line—provided, of course, he is casting practically straight up and actually stalking the fish from behind. But when casting diagonally up and across from either bank, in which manner it may happen that a great deal of the water may be most advantageously worked, the familiar fact that "keeping out of sight" is half the battle in trout-fishing must never be forgotten. This time-honored rule of the trout-fisherman is, it would seem, quite frequently neglected by even the most experienced anglers, its non-observance often constituting the "inexplicable" reason for failure when casting to a rising fish or when fishing a good pool.

It is always best to use the shortest line compatible with safety, constantly bearing in mind the well-known very acute vision of the trout. The chances of failing to hook a rising fish or of eventually losing a fish successfully fastened increase measurably with the length of line in use. Moreover, with a short line it is easier to prevent drag because there is less line upon the water. On windy days when the ordinarily smooth reaches are choppy, and always when fishing the swifter, broken runs, a thirty, even a twenty-five-foot cast is ample, if you are fishing nearly upstream and take pains to swing the rod low. On several occasions, having allowed my fly to float down very close to me in order to lift it from the water without wetting (if you lift your fly from the water when it is well away from you, the pull upon the submerged leader drags it under), I have had a rise less than five feet away.

But to successfully fish close-up, the angler's progress must be slow, careful, and quiet, and the rod must be kept down low. Overhead motion, more than anything else, alarms the fish. You have only to pass your hand over a can of fingerling trout fresh from the hatchery to verify this and to appreciate the instinctive alarm of trout at anything moving in the air above them. Avoid quick motions—in fact, dry fly fishing is a game which simply cannot be successfully played in a hurry.

Not infrequently the downstream wet fly fisherman covers several miles of water in a day's fishing—I know, because I have done it innumerable times myself, and I do not say that there is not much charm, good exercise, and generally a few fish to be found in this sort of fishing. But anything of the kind is strictly incompatible with properly fishing the dry fly. The wet fly man who takes up the dry fly method should understand at the outset that the cast-once-and-walk-a-mile sort of fly-fishing is simply out of the question. If you know your stream, select a moderate reach of evidently good dry fly water, and fish it leisurely, deliberately, and searchingly.

Keep an eye out for rising fish, and observe closely the natural insects, if any, about and on the water. Cover all the water thoroughly, floating your fly not once but several times over the best places. If the water is equally good from bank to bank, let each cast be not more than two feet to the right of the preceding one, beginning under your own bank (generally the left facing upstream) and working across the stream. Then move up slowly and proceed to cover the unfished water above in a similar manner. Pools should be fished in the same way—covered thoroughly from foot to head. The matter of the most likely places to look for trout has been discussed in a foregoing chapter and need not be reconsidered here. The suggestions to follow on casting to a rising fish will also be found to have a general application in many ways to fishing the water.