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

I have always searched out interesting rod lengths or different materials to fish with including bamboo, glass, and graphite. I enjoy fishing them all. Picking a rod from the pile and deciding it is a bamboo sort of day is fun. I have noticed that I will fish what are considered bigger waters with a 7 or 8 foot bamboo rod and it is just fine. What it does do is keep me on my toes with applying slack into the cast and also when the fly is on the water too but I think this is good for me to think about these situations. 

Fly lines are important to me. When I buy a new rod I will try several through it first, just trying on the grass and then when fishing. I’ll take the one that felt best and the runner up, just in case. I’m rarely fishing at long range and so I’m looking for a line that eliminates too many false casts and loads quickly but won’t land heavily on the water. I try to be as flexible as possible and on occasion feel that underlining a rod can get the best from it. I’ve certainly found this with bamboo rods and a recent glass purchase too. Line ratings can be subjective and I treat them as such, preferring to go by feel more than anything else. A good line/rod combination makes fishing easier. I recall trying a glass rod many years ago and having to go up four line weights to make it feel as though it was working the way I wanted it to. I’ve always believed that if I were buying brand ‘X' rod and they also offer fly lines that there would be a pretty good chance the rod were tested with their own brand lines, so that would be a good starting point. 

I’d guess my floatants would be like any other anglers, consisting of powder to dry CDC, floatant for standard dry flies and Fly Magic for CDC.

I personally don’t select clothing for the fishing I’m doing but I always make sure I wear rose-tinted glasses!

Leader material, build up, length and knots.

My approach is always simple with leaders, they are always tapered and I try to have as few knots as possible in the set-up. For this reason, I buy a shop-bought leader that I have used for many years that has never let me down. I will of course add tippet but this will very much depend on conditions and behaviour of fish on the day. The standard length I use will be around 12ft. As I mentioned, this can change and if there are heavy winds I may play with the taper a little by cutting the front taper back and making it a little more aggressive but I can’t think of many occasions this happens. I am not making really long casts and so a 20ft+ leader and not much fly line out of the rod tip will make casting more tricky. I’d much prefer to be able to deliver my fly with minimum attempts at a rising fish.

Approach and stealth.

I do prefer to target specific fish that I have seen rising.

Most importantly, I like to take my time, be aware of what is happening and watch how things are playing out. When I am sure I have a fish marked, I’ll get into position, wait some more and if I’ve seen the fish has continued feeding, I’ll see if there is a rhythm to the rises and if I have that worked out I’ll make a cast. Sometimes, this can take time but I feel it is well invested. 

Minimal false casting, careful pick up of line off of the water and a fly that is floating they way I want it to all sound obvious but can often be forgotten in the excitement of a rising fish in front of you. The mental aspect is often overlooked too and I’ll play the cast out in my mind when I’m in position taking into account obstacles and the cast I need to make. I really do feel there is something to being ‘in the zone’ when everything feels like second nature, we’re making great casts, aren’t getting hung up in branches and are lifting into every fish!

Reading the water.

This is an important skill but by spending time observing the water the clues will start to appear as to where the fish are, what they are feeding on and of course, where they are in the pool. If I am fishing the water rather than to rising fish, I look for bubble lines, back eddies and sheltered areas to work the water. It may be summertime that the trout are in the heads of pools taking advantage of the cooler, oxygenated water while at the start of the season they may be in slacker water. These are things I’ll be thinking about as I work a pool and am almost playing the averages on where I think I’ll find fish but it isn’t always correct. I think this is what keeps me coming back for more!

Casting ability which casts are essential.

I think being able to get your fly to its target with minimal effort and maximum effect then you are well on the way to success. I still practice my casting on a regular basis and feel that if I am really comfortable with the rod in my hand then I’ll fish well. The less I do, which isn’t often, the less confident I feel. Sometimes just five or ten minutes of casting is enough to help. It can be easy to pull a lot of line off of the reel but I like to think of everything in a real fishing context and work with the length of line I’d typically use when fishing. I then think about how my timing and loop control are. The other thing I work with is casting off my other shoulder. One of the places I fish for some special trout is where I have to be able to do this, I just wouldn’t be able to get into a good position and cover the fish otherwise. An interesting practice drill is to teach yourself to cast with your non-dominant hand. You’ll learn a lot about your casting with your dominant hand and give you a nice option that you might be thankful for one day!

When it comes to casts, for me as a dry fly angler it is all about the drag-free drift and so any slack line cast is a must for the casting armoury.

Entomology, what should we know.

I think we owe it to our quarry to know a little about what they are eating. Even a basic understanding of the differing fly species such as ephemera, caddis, midge, stonefly and terrestrials will help make fly selection so much easier. One of the first questions I asked myself when I get to the water is what is hatching? I used to teach my pupils that if caddis were on the water they looked liked moths and barely left the water surface. With ephemera, they are easy to spot and at the start of the season they start larger and darker and get lighter as the season progressed and I’d spot the plumes of midge above the water. Stonefly, although present, aren’t eaten by the trout where I fish. If the wind were blowing and we’d see rises I’d look for signs of terrestrials being blown on to the water. It is basic stuff but it allowed newcomers to be aware of the environment and what was happening in it.

Having said that, spotting a masked hatch (when you think there is one hatch on but the fish are taking a mini hatch of something else) is something I really enjoy. 

Rise forms. Can they tell us something?

Absolutely, it tells at what stage of the hatch the fish are feeding. From trout eating the emerging fly all the way through to them picking off the spent fly we are given clues as to which fly we should be tying on.

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

I find I use fewer and fewer patterns but variety of size is something I am more interested in. If I can replicate each stage of the hatch then I am in the game. There is something in the phrase ‘a well-presented wrong pattern will out-fish a badly-presented correct pattern’. This is more the case for the acidic rivers I fish where food isn’t always bountiful and as a result the fish can, at times be more opportunistic. This might not always be true, especially when it comes to larger trout but I’d be more likely to change size before pattern, particularly if I was aware of the hatch and at what stage of it the fish are feeding. 

I think my favourite material is CDC. It is so versatile and so effective. I remember buying it when it first became available to tyers. The issue at the time was drying the feathers once they had become wet. Thankfully we have some great treatments for it now.

When it comes to patterns, one of the most consistent for me has been Paul Procter’s Pearl Butt Emerger. I tie it with scruffy dubbing and have found size 14 which may, in some cases, appear a little big but it doesn’t appear to be as effective in smaller sizes. 

Presentation and drifts.

For me, these are two of the most essential elements of my fishing. I will make each cast on the basis that drag will be an issue, either from what I can see from the fly on the water or the hard-to-detect micro-drag. To overcome this, I will automatically add slack as the cast travels out and/or when the line is in the water. Presentation is a function of the cast more so, than in some cases, actual fly selection, tippet choice or tippet diameter. I can of course work on these things if conditions dictate but if I am unable to land my fly delicately on the water it isn’t really of any significance. I think this might be the reason that I work so hard on my casting and my ability to cover fish efficiently. 

Upstream or downstream?

I prefer to target fish by casting upstream but there are situations where there isn’t much that will beat a downstream dry. I find delaying the set on the fish a little can help if I am covering a fish with a downstream presentation. Again, controlling slack so the fly doesn’t drag is important but there are times that a caddis that skates a little can help but it wouldn’t be my first line of attack on a fish unless I was sure this was what it wanted.

Fighting fish.

I am always going to release a fish, so I play them harder and use what I feel is appropriate tippet. There might be arguments for fishing lighter tippet to more selective fish but I don’t buy into them. 4lb works well for me and gives me room to handle more sizeable fish should I hook one. 

I have noticed that I now make rod selection on the basis of how it casts but also its ability to play fish too. A rod that bends a little more deeply cushions takes and the way I play fish. I first noticed this when I first used dedicated nymph rods with soft tips. I rarely lost fish and could get them in quickly. I tried fly lines through some of them and in some cases they sort of work but bamboo and glass are excellent for playing fish.