Charles Gaidy

FISHING WITH DRY FLIES Charles GAIDY

(Translation : Malik Mazbouri)

1 Choice of equipment Rods, reels, fly lines, fly floatants, clothes, glasses and other useful items.

Already in the early 50's, thanks to my grandfather, who was a rural warden in Haute-Corrèze, on the borders of Auvergne and Limousin, close to the plateau of Millevaches, I discovered fly fishing - half wet fly and half dry fly - and I was fascinated by these techniques and their tactics, which were considered as an art. Since those venerable days, times have changed: of course the fly rod is still a rod, the reel is still a reel, the line is still a line, the hook is still a hook. And what about the artificial flies: still flies? Here is something to satisfy the most demanding, the most curious too!

For me, two situations impose rods and reels : do I fish wading a small narrow stream often cluttered with vegetation or I do I wade a wide or even very wide river ? Unless I fish from a bank, lined with high aquatic weeds or water lilies.

1st case: fishing a stream. Rather short 7 foot fast rod (tip action) in carbon for line # WF 5

2nd case: fishing a river of varying widths or fishing from the shore. Carbon rod 8.6 to 9 feet, more or less fast for line # WF 5 or 6 with a well balanced leader.

If I had to use only one rod for dry fly trout fishing, in all circumstances, my favourite would be an 8.6 foot long, fast action rod for #5 line.

The three main categories of reels are:

- single reels with spool

- semi-automatic reels

- automatic reels where the retrieve is done... automatically by a more or less continuous pressure on the outer handle.

I use automatic reel very often, but only when I fish short distances in streams or small rivers-It is perhaps a nostalgic reminder of a not so distant period when Abeille, then Cordel, happily completed the equipment of the good fly fisherman.

My go-to line is the JMC R2T type which offers a long tapered front taper allowing a discrete fly landing which is not always achieved with the classic WF which tends to "slap" on the surface of the water.The overall colour is not important to me. It is important that it is perfectly adapted to the rod strength. It is important to pay attention to the quality and robustness of the line-leader connection.

I regularly use liquid or aerosol hydrophobic products, salts, after having first dried and cleaned the artificial fly with an absorbent paper of household like « Sopalin».

I regularly fish in rivers and I wear the classic fly fisherman's equipment: multi-pocket waistcoat, waders with boots; clothing and headgear adapted to the seasons or weather conditions.

Apart from medical glasses (essential) or magnifying glasses I don't see the need for sunglasses or polaroid glasses which are more suitable for sight fishing but each one judges his own comfort.

The landing net, the wading stick, a simple spare reel, extra spools are other useful accessories. I always have two or three safety pins on my waistcoat, hanging in a good place, which are very useful for unblocking an hook eye, for example, or undoing an unwanted knot.

2 Leader material, build up, length and knots.

From my point of view, there are two cases to consider. If I fish with a short, fast-action rod (7 to 7.6 feet), the knotted leader is relatively short, about the same length as the rod or a little less ; if I fish with a much longer rod (8.6 to 9 feet), my leader is 1 ½ times the length of the rod, or even much longer. Wether it is with or without knots, the diameter of the tip is adapted to the size of the desired fish or to the size of the artificial fly used.

3 Approach and stealth.

Because of the vision of the fish "in a cone" (thus the depth where it is on the lookout) and the perception of the vibrations by its lateral line, it is necessary to be extremely discrete whether it is from the edge or while walking in the water, no too abrupt gestures, no useless false casts, no shiny objects. On the other hand, I believe that the colour of the clothes does not matter much, provided that they are not too shiny.

4 Reading the water.

The good fisherman is distinguished from the average fisherman by the way he approaches a watercourse and its fish. The sense of water, innate in some, is only acquired through experience and frequent fishing trips on different types of waters and climatic or weather conditions.

Observation of water levels, of the colour of the water, of its speed, patience, and study of the environment — the hatching of aquatic insects, the behaviour of animals close to the river, such as birds, swallows, wagtails and bats—  often provide a lot of answers... not all of them. These are the charms of dry fly fishing !

5 Casting ability which casts are essential

I used to say that I would teach a beginner how to cast a fly in a few minutes, but that it would take a lifetime to learn how to ... fish!

The basic cast is the vertical or horizontal cast, the backhand; then come various useful casts that must be mastered such as the roll cast, the double haul in certain cases.

For some years now, an innovative technique has been proposed by the Italian casting school: the TLT casting ! To be discovered !

6 Entomology, what should we know.

Entomology is the branch of natural sciences dedicated to the study of insects, in our case aquatic insects and some others called terrestrial. For the fly fisherman, and if we want to be "learned", let us specify that this science is divided into four main parts:

- Systematics, which elaborates the classification according to class, order and sub-order, family, genus and sub-genus, species and sub-species.

Example: Class of Insects - Order Ephemeroptera - Family Ephemeridae - Genus Ephemera - Species Ephemera danica(Note: Latin names are written in italics).

- Morphology or description of the species under consideration by observing different criteria such as colour, size, shape and position of the wings, their veins, characteristic body patterns and many others that can often only be noticed with a binocular magnifying glass (sexual organs, eyes, mandibles, gills...).

- Biology or the study of behaviour, environment, development, reproduction, flight periods, death, etc.

- Ecology or the study of living beings in their environment, taking into account changes in the environment, such as mechanical aggression (dams, re-channelling of banks, extraction of sand and gravel, etc.), chemical or organic aggression (pollution), heating of the water, predators.

7 Rise forms; can they tell us something?

Rise betrays the activity of the fish which feeds by breaking the surface to capture prey which drifts on or slightly under it, particularly during hatchings or accidental falls as a result of atmospheric conditions (squall....) or death of the prey in question.

The deformation of the water surface can take different forms, depending on the activity of the fish:

- The fish in position, on its lookout spot, just presents its mouth to capture its floating prey and forms a slight eddy that deforms the water surface. The rise follow one another at a regular rate, always in the same place, confirming that the fish is active if it has not been frightened or captured !

- Only the dorsal fin of the fish appears during rising: the prey drifts just under the surface of the water because it has difficulty appearing in the open air due to the relative resistance of the air-water surface tension.

- Sometimes it is the tail (caudal fin) of the trout that appears in whole or in part, showing that the fish is feeding on larvae vertically on or near the bottom. It is then useless to present a dry fly; fishing with a weighted nymph which will evolve near the bottom becomes another tactic;

- Most of the time the fish feeds with its head turned upstream, to see the preys arriving, brought there by the current to the same place on its specially chosen lookout post, but it is also possible that the rise appear in various places more or less close to the previous spot: the fish is then hunting and shows itself here and there with hot and respite times.

8 Fly selection, size, shape, materials, which flies are essential.

Like most fly fishermen, my fly boxes are filled with dozens of artificials of all kinds and sizes but it is almost always with a few favourites that I practice all year long, except under very precise conditions often dictated by the particular hatchings of the moment: Mayflies, mini-midges, ant falls, grasshoppers ...

From this point of view, a selection of artificial flies mounted on hooks ranging in size from n° 8 or 10 (mayflies and large mayflies) to n° 18 (black midges) allow me to deal with all situations, not all situations! This selection is as follows: Peute, Cul-de-Canard, Double-Collerette (my Merlinoises in all sizes), Branko's Killer, Tricolores, Whickam's Fancy, Adam's...

To this collection I add some parachute flyes in small sizes (16, 18, sometimes 14).

9 Presentation and drifts.

After having located the location of an active fish (which rises), or the position likely to be occupied by the fish on the lookout but which does not show its presence by rising, I cast my fly upstream, according to the depth of the place and the speed of the current, of the obstacles as well, so that the current brings it in a natural way practically on the fish. I let it drift a few tens of centimetres and I quickly but delicately pull the line to execute another cast or false cast in order to better adjust my next "shot" for a more precise landing. If the fish grabs the artificial fly, I strike instantly.

When fishing large rivers, I operate in the same way but the downstream or three-quarter downstream drifts are more or less long, avoiding casts and false casts over the fish which, without this precaution, is likely to be wary or frightened.

10 Upstream or downstream?

When I fish with a dry fly I regularly cast upstream or slightly upstream-downstream but when I have passed an active fish that has not been spooked, I cast three quarters downstream or even completely downstream especially for grayling.

11 Fighting fish.

Line recovered quickly with the hand and, for the largest fish, fight on the reel, brake well adjusted.

As far as possible, I always shorten the fight; the biggest fish are brought to the net; most of them are caught by hand. In both cases they are quickly released !