Dry fly fishing has always given me the most pleasure, that can be fishing on rivers or Loughs a rising fish is just a beautiful thing.

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

Most of my dry fly fishing on rivers, I do with a 9 foot 4 or 5 weight, some anglers will say that’s quite heavy, but a 4 or 5 is a very good option on wild windy days. I normally fish small to medium size rivers in my native Ireland where a 9 foot is perfect, this said like most Irish anglers do at time prefer a longer rod while river fishing and always when lough fishing from a boat. I also use a 10’ # 4 or 5 at lot and when doing some of my fishing in Norway on very big rivers like the Trysil, 10 foot rod is great for dries or if you want to be more versatile and want to switch to nymphs. 

Reels, I like a reel that’s robust as a lot of my fishing is in very rocky rivers, sometimes you need to clamber over rocks to get to the best places. I also like a reel that’s not to fiddly especially when you have a cold day and can’t feel your fingers, nothing worse, when wanting to change a spool or trying to fix a problem. I also look for a smooth drag in case you hit a very large fish and a reel that balances the outfit holds line and your backing nicely. 

Lines. When growing up fishing with my father we always used Double taper lines which worked fine and where economical as you could use both ends. Now there is a massive choice of lines with different tapers on the market and many of them very good. I would say I like most anglers that have fished a long time and often are looking for a line that turns over nicely at all achievable ranges, which is supple with very little line memory and is hard wearing. I fish mostly WF lines now and like subtle pale colors, I don’t choose very bright lines, I believe I have seen them spook fish, but many will say they don’t anyway I only use bright lines for teaching or demonstrations. A good fly line is paramount for me.              

Glasses I always wear a pair of polarised sunglasses. A hook stuck in someone's eye could happen and does not bear thinking about, but there are many  more reasons to have a good pair of glasses, from protecting our eyes from the sun and glare coming from the water, which can happen even in low light, to protection from wind. Polarised glasses also importantly improve our visibility when looking through water not only at times for spotting fish, but to help us recognize obstacles and hazards while wading, like rocks, sunken logs and sudden drop offs below the water’s surface.  I have found this very valuable not only while fishing myself but when guiding and helping a client wade through a river.

Fly floatant, not that fussy normally use Gink or Hunts, also always like to dry and clean my flies after a catching a fish, use an Amadou or kitchen roll.       

Clothes, Dull clothing to match the background. Waterproof, light breathable use layers for warmth, also always a cap or a hat with brim or peak, it’s essential for many reasons. 

2. Leader material, build up, length and knots.

I always now use a tapered leader, then attach tippet to the end. I fish long leaders but not all the time depending on fly size and weather conditions, size of river. 

If searching water, what I mean is not casting to rising fish on large rivers or loughs I would often use two dry flies if the rules permit, though I prefer one fly if stalking a rising trout or a difficult trout in a spot where you can only achieve a short drift  . My farther used to use the tapered leader set up in Charles Ritz great book A Fly fishers Life, very highly recommended read.        

Knots I use a tucked blood always have , I know there many good knots and have used others but I just always go back to what my father used and I have been using it since I was very young  so easy to tie. 

3. Approach and stealth.

Well the first lesson to being successful is trying to be very stealthy so not to scare or alert the fish. This may be achieved by casting to rising fish at long range or by using the correct light equipment.  Ok back to being stealthy this will help you catch more, walk softly, fish are as sensitive to noise and vibration as they are to visual warnings. Walking lightly on the riverbanks and trying to wade slowly and quietly are very important tactics. Remember you are trying to fool a wild animal that you are not around. I recall when I was fishing with my father when I was very little, possibly as young as 7 or 8 years of age, he taught me a valuable lesson about being stealthy. I was excitably running along the riverbank while we were fishing, so he shouted at me telling me of, move slowly he shouted walk lightly, trout can hear. I thought he was mad trout don’t have ears I have seen them, I did not know back then about lateral lines, which is the sense organ fish use to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Later that night while I was having a bath, he came in pushed my head under the water and banged the side of the bath with his fist. Then let me up for air (thankfully) and said, trout hear and feel vibrations. I am not saying you half drown your children when teaching them to fish, but that lesson stuck in my head and it made me catch more trout. So be quiet and cast as light as you can. It is one of the things that makes a good angler a great one with the dry or for that matter any sort of fly fishing.  

4. Reading the water. 

Always sit and take your time and watch what is going on, to see what’s happening. Reading water is easy, think what trout like, good cover, which can be an overhanging tree, a stump an undercut bank, a rock where the current changes, a bolt hole for safety. Trout foodstuff tends to gather along seams mostly caused by a difference in the current.  Most trout hold in or next to these seams where slower water meets faster water, which makes food lanes. The best trout will hold where they can get the most food with the least effort, so watch the seams and present your flies in these places.

5. Casting ability which casts are essential.

To become a good fly fisher, firstly you must learn to cast, but I am not going to call that a tip as to me it seems obvious. I teach a lot of people and I am still amazed, just how many anglers have bad technique or habits in casting, this is nothing to be ashamed off as it can be fixed, it really does pay to find a good casting coach to help you with this. Although I have now been a fly-fishing instructor for many years, I myself took some lessons when I was sitting my instructor courses and it helped me a lot. I have now showed 1000s of anglers including many that had been fishing for years how to cast better, many say, I wish I had of got some lessons of you years ago. Most essential casts depend on your situation there is times you may need to haul to get distance or cast into a wind or Spey cast as you have no room to overhead cast. I use a lot of mends or water and aerial mends to achieve more drag free drift or at times cast around an obstacle, I also use a lot of side casts to put the fly under over hanging trees et cetera.  

6. Entomology, what should we know.

I have a love for Entomology and always did and if you have a basic grasp it will improve your fishing and your catch rate. There are many great fly patterns that will work for a variety of different insects, also recognize at least two thirds of the trout diet is made up of subsurface food. Even if you prefer dry fly fishing like me, knowing what nymphs, larvae, pupa and crustaceans are available beneath the surface will help you choose what fly you’re going to fish with.  Look under stones and into the river for what insects are present, if you don’t see many fish rising. If you can tell what is the most abundant, it’s is a good chance that’s what your trout maybe eating. It’s not always the case as it could be a time of year they are on small fish or they are maybe being selective, perhaps picking out a certain insect, sometimes even at a stage of life, for instance an emerging fly. But that said if you match the hatch or find what the trout are eating and try to copy it you will certainly do much better. There are many books and information on the web now to help you with this. I remember as a youth looking at an excellent book, Trout Fly Recognition, by the late great English fly fisher John Goddard, this really helped me a lot. I was lucky enough to meet John in later life and tell him. So that’s tip two try and match the hatch and remember size of fly is important. Knowing what time, a hatch or fall of flies is very important so knowing the life cycle really helps.  

7. Rise forms Can they tell us something?

Rise Forms, can tell you a lot , a bulge just under the surface can be a fish feeding on emerging flies , a good fish can also sip down fly and a fish constantly sipping is normally on small abundant flies in and on the surface, some of these fish some may think are small fish , but I have seen some very good trout sipping down a fly very gently.  

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

Size and shape I think are the most important. I have a lot of favorite patterns, but I always try to match the hatch. I like the traditional flies as they are steeped in fly fishing history and I like many of the modern patterns to, If you’re a fly tyer it’s a tremendous asset if you can dress a representation of what the trout are feeding on I was lucky that my late father did this and was a great angler.     

9. Presentation and drifts. Touched on that above mends being for me the most used casts in a lot of my dry fly fishing. 

10. Upstream or downstream?

Both and every other angle that you can achieve to get a good drift, without spooking the fish. On my local small, overgrown fast streams and river, that you need to wade and be part water vole, the best method is upstream dry, because of the river and how you have to fish it , But on larger very clear water rivers down stream dry fly can certainly be the most effective, I learnt this while fishing for trout and grayling on clear rivers in Norway, where upstream dry really does not work , longer casts and line control with mends is needed, so the first thing the feeding fish see is your fly.       

 11. Fighting fish.

I often see many anglers saying a was smashed or my hook straightened. It has happened to me a few times in my life when a fish has destroyed me and I could tell you some great stories about being broke by massive fish, but not often. Most anglers use far too stiff a rod and don’t let the fish run while playing them, playing a good fish takes practice, the trick is to be firm but not to firm. Practice keeping your rod at a 45-degree or lesser angle, so you are playing the fish with most of the rod not just the tip. When you think about it a fly rod is just a spring and acts as a shock absorber while hooking and playing fish. Also remember if possible, to move to get better angles on the fish to steer the fish out of areas that may to its advantage.