Sandy Nelson
1. Choice of equipment Rods, reels, fly lines, fly floatants, clothes, glasses and other useful items.
I think whatever rod and line combination suits you for casting control, is the way to approach dryfly. You want something where you forget about the casting and just focus on the fish. A rod that becomes an extension of your arm so you can throw those slack line casts and get the fly into the right drift. On my waters that means a Glass 8’ 4wt or Med/Fast (soft tip, deep bending) carbon 8’6”or 9’ 4wt rod coupled with a Smooth disc drag fly reel and a Barrio GT90 MK2 fly line. The long head line helps with turnover, control and aerial stability. The smooth coating means the line not only feels nice in your hand but will land nicely and helps with the total control, essential for getting that presentation. If you have a favourite line, build your tackle selection around that, and all will be well. I try not to use floatants preferring CDC and Deer hair and relying on drying the fly regularly. It also allows you to control how high the fly is floating which can be critical. Vileda Mop heads provide loads of fantastic material that dries flies better than anything else.
Good Polaroid glasses are essential too, they protect the eyes and remove the glare, the rivers I fish aren’t really clear enough to sight fish, but reducing the glare helps you spot rising fish especially in a ripple. A wading staff is a piece of kit I couldn’t live without, I often wade deep to get close to the fish and I’ve had some moments I’d rather forget, the staff has made me feel far more secure and it keeps my wife happier too.
2. Leader material, build up, length and knots.
I remove the welded loops from flylines if they have them and superglue fit a 12 or 14ft tapered leader direct to the line tip. The smooth transition helps with turnover and presentation, I never understand why someone would go to the lengths of designing a flyline with a fine tip and then fold it back on itself to create a heavy lump just where you least want it. I like a 5x leader and then I loop to loop connect a 3ft tippet usually of 5.5x and I prefer TroutHunter co-poly for both tippet and leaders. The aim is always to minimise the amount of Knots I have as each one is a weak spot I don’t need. The tippet needs to be stiff enough to turnover a floating fly, but also soft enough to aid with the drag free drift. Trouthunter does this perfectly.
3. Approach and stealth.
I always try to get as close to the fish as I can, this cuts down on false casts and gives you more control for drag reduction and a better chance of hooking up on the strike. I will wade deep when necessary rather than cast long. I take the Herons approach to camouflage and like a mix of Greys to break up my profile, I will move very slowly and try to keep as low as is comfortable. Keeping the Fly-line from the fishes view is secondary to a drag free drift, but almost as essential, a solid line through the fishes view will often put them off for a few minutes and can spook shy fish completely. Anything that can potentially put a fish off its feeding pattern has to be measured and avoided before making the cast.
4. Reading the water.
There are few substitutes for experience when it comes to reading the water, local knowledge helps with the quirks of a river and can cut out weeks of wandering about while you try to find the fish. Some basic ideas cover most of where you might find the better fish, the main one for me is that Big trout are generally lazy and will find a lie where the river brings them food and they don’t have to move far to feed steadily. On my home water the big trout, when taking dries, prefer 12-18” of water and will be found at the tails of pools and glides where there is structure such as rocks and weeds to provide cover. Foam lines and feeding birds are also great indicators of where the flies are being channelled. If these features are close to the bank then even better, big fish like somewhere they can bolt too when threatened, again with minimal effort.
5. Casting ability which casts are essential.
Practice is a big factor in my winter regime and during the season. Casting for distance can teach you about timing and control but is not often used on the river. Casts such as Puddle, bucket, wiggles, aerial mends and left and right hook casts are regularly used, most often to introduce slack in a given place and get that drag free drift. These are all vital tools for dryfly fishing and I spend many hours practicing them. Carl McNeil’s “casts that catch fish” is probably my most watched DVD. Being able to cast comfortably off either shoulder is also a highly useful skill to learn, especially if you are in the river and need to change direction quickly but keep in control.
6. Entomology, what should we know.
I’m almost as interested in the insects on the river as I am tying the flies or even catching the fish. I believe its something every dryfly fisherman should understand. Identifying the insects that are hatching is not just about picking an artificial, its about where they may be hatching due to the river topography, or the time of day. Different species hatch at varying times and when you know certain flies are about you can focus your time on the water and the areas on the water where they are most likely to be found. This gives you more time spent in the right places and time on the water increases your chances with the fish. A simple book like Pat O’Reilly’s “Matching the Hatch” can teach you what the insects are and where and when they are likely to be found, it explains the type of riverbeds that the insects live in, so you get a leg up on what might be about at certain times of the year and where you might see them.
Natural Flies Of The River Don
https://www.fishingthefly.co.uk/river-don-natural-flies.html
7. Rise forms Can they tell us something?
Rise forms can be deceptive, big trout often move the water when they approach the surface and there can be quite a bulge, however this can also come from a smaller fish moving fast. The smaller fish will often be sitting on deeper water so have to move further to take a fly, which means they hit the surface with some momentum and that can skew the perception of the rise form. In contrast the big fish on shallower water barely move to take a fly so the rise may be a small dimple but often a tail or dorsal fin will break the surface quietly, but you see it, the water may rise and fall too as those big shoulders displace the water. Splashy rises are usually caused by the fish trying to take a moving insect like a skittering sedge or stonefly, fish taking Duns will often poke a nose out of the water so watching a regular riser will generally show a repeat pattern which can help you identify which stage of a hatch the fish are focussed on, such as a head and tail swirl often indicates emerging insects, the tiny dimples are often Spinner feeders. Knowing the depth of the water you are watching will help you decide which fish are likely to be the better size ones. Vince Marinaro’s book “the ring of the rise” explains a lot of this well with photos.
8. Fly selection, size, shape, materials, which flies are essential, favourite fly.
My fly selection is relatively simple. I use suggestive patterns that rely on profile, shade and size to match a variety of insects. The flies are a great example of standing on the shoulders of giants with most of the basic designs coming from Wyatt, Harrop, Proctor, Petitjean and Vasies. I use just 7 and vary the silk colour to affect the overall hue of the fly. There is a Sedge Emerger, The DHE, the APT, classic spent spinner, the Plume Tip Dry, a flat wing emerger and my CDC spider. The profile and size are the biggest factors as you figure out which stage the fish are taking. I have a real preference for CDC based flies and also like comparadun hair for my emergers. I like flies to be soft so they fold in the fish’s mouth like a natural. For dubbing I think there is something poetic and universal about using Mink and I also use Andrews Scruffy Buzzer dubbing. Changing the thread from yellow, olive, orange and grey gives a variation in hue that covers all the insects that hatch. Its very rare I use anything other than Size 12-16 flies.
9. Presentation and drifts.
Everything I do is usually with the aim of being Drag free, the casts that I practice, the positioning in the water and even the leader length. I will take several minutes to try and figure out the best way to get a fly to cover a rising fish in the most natural way possible. If its possible to cast a few feet ahead of the fish and then pull the leader sub surface before it gets to the drift, then that’s an option I will usually take, it can often pull your fly into the meniscus without drowning it as well, which can be useful with emergers or spinners.
10. Upstream or downstream?
I’m not fussy, I will usually position myself depending on the current and where the fish is lying. The priority is getting the drift right. Quite often I try to position myself either in line or slightly upstream of a fish, that gives me options with how to present the cast. Sometimes, certain styles of flies fish better in certain directions, like spent spinners upstream and emergers downstream. I think it can affect the way they sit in the water making them appear more natural.
11. fighting fish
is something I believe should be done as quickly as possible, I use rods that bend deep and have soft tips so that the tippets are better protected from lunges and head shakes. These rods absorb more energy from the fish and help you land them faster so they can be released and swim away strongly. I like to play the fish off the reel for extra control hence why I like a really smooth simple drag. I always keep the fish in the water and only lift them briefly to get a quick photo before they are on their way. Brown Trout I find endlessly beautiful, with so many possible variations and each fish looking truly unique, they really are the treasure I spend my life hunting.
