Fly Blog

by Mark Waldin, www.flycatcherinc.com

• Set the drag BEFORE starting fishing if you want to make sure you don’t break your tippet.

• Keep pressure on the line at ALL times. Pinch the line and play it out to the fish until you get the fish onto the reel.

• Keep the rod tip up using the flexibility of the fly rod tip to absorb impacts as the fish starts its run.

• If you are using a fighting butt, keep the rod out to one side at 50 degrees or so with fighting butt against the forearm.

• Let the fish run when he wants to. Don’t try to overpower him.

• If the line plays out to the backing, point the rod at the fish as the knot is going thru the guides.

• Prepare your line to backing knot with a sealer, like Pliobond so that it goes through the guides easier.

• When the fish stops running, get some line back on the reel by winding down the rod and lifting back up.

• Work to keep the fish out of the fast current (on a river).

• Be ready to run. You may have to follow the fish to control the situation and keep your line off of rocks and detritus.

• Move to a location where it is easy to stand and beach the fish.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com Number one is to pick a fly on a light wire hook. The hackling should be slightly oversized for the hook. In Western rivers the most common sizes are 6, 8, and 10 while Eastern rivers run mainly with 10, 12, and 14 size hooks. In low, clear water fishermen may drop down one or two sizes outside this range.

Flies need to float well which means they need to float high on tail and hackles. Hackles need to be of a lightweight high floating material like deer hair.

As described by Tom McNally in his book, “The Complete Book of Fly Fishing, Second Edition” (McGraw Hill, 1993)a good assorment of trout fishing dry flies includes:

*Irresistible
*Adams
*Hendrickson
*Quill Gordon
*Mosquito
*Light Cahill
*Dark Cahill
*Blue Dun
*Joe’s Hopper
*Muddler Minnow
*Brown Bivisible
*Dark Brown Cranefly
*Gordon Spinner
*Green Drake
*Multi-Colored Variant
*Badger Spider
*Olive-Spent Wing
*Grey Wulff
*Brown Midges
*Black Midges

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com Normally, the dry fly fisherman wants to float his or her fly on a natural float down a current. But this won’t always give the best results. Sometimes it is good to mix things up. A fly skittering across the water may be just what a trout needs to be convinced your fly is a live insect.

At the end of a natural float try skimming your fly over the surface. Twitch it so that it hops and jumps. Let it drift again for two or three feet.

To optimize your technique, use bushy haired flies, variants, or bivisibles. These float well and withstand jerking without getting swamped. Use a long fly rod and the longest finest leader you can manage. Larger flies skip better than smaller flies. Try 8, 10, or even 12s.

Skipping or hopping a dry fly works best on relatively calm water. Fast water will drown the fly. Try especially the skimming technique on the tail out of a pool.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com The manner in which a dry fly floats is one of the keys to catching fish. A dry fly that isn’t floating isn’t going to catch fish. Unless you have good reason to choose something specific, go with a fly you know will float well and bob back when dunked. Deer hair has good float properties as does foam (used in ants, spiders, and grasshoppers).

If you drown your fly you can bring it back to life by drying it off on a wool or flannel shirt. Blow it dry afterward. Execute a couple of false casts to dry it out further.

Before fishing a dry fly grease it with a silicone based floatant. Don’t put on too much. Typically a drop will do. Many people feel the fly line does not need to be greased. I suggest you try it and decide for yourself. Make sure you wipe off any excess floatant from the line thoroughly. Don’t grease the fly line where it may pick up debris, such as on sand or dirt. Instead, grease it in a comfortable place, such as on your lawn before you head out.

Some people like to grease the leader as well. Others don’t. Having the leader sink is not going to drag down your fly like a sunken fly line will. Again, experiment with this and get a feel for what works best for you.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com If you are like me and are not an expert caster, then I am sure you have found times when you have placed your fly line in something that resembled more of a heap of line than an arrow. And if you have done this I am sure that you have noticed some amazing little knots that can form in your tippet, seemingly out of nowhere. No mind, they don’t seem to have a significant impact on casting or pick up of fly line.

But here is a tip for you. Those nasty little knots are significantly weaker than the tippet of which they are a part. Having these knots in your line is begging for the big one to get away. My advice to you is to check your tippet regularly, maybe after every few casts to make sure you don’t have wind knots in it. If you do, cut the tippet off and put on a new one. Don’t let the big one get away!

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com  Have you ever sealed your fly rod thread wraps and found a single loose wrap on the end that has pulled away from the pack?  Do you ponder as to how that could have happened?

Of course there are multiple reasons that it could happen and it is always best to examine your wraps right after you finish applying the first coat of epoxy.  But there are two reasons that stand out that cause this to occur.

The first reason is on the start of your fly rod wrap.  You loop the thread over the rod, cross the thread over itself and hold the cross as you wrap the thread around the fly rod two or three times.  Now it is tight and you can proceed normally.  The problem forms in those first few wraps, when you don’t have as tight a loops as you do after you get started.  The solution is to make sure that before you cut the thread tag end you pull the thread up tight even if it pulls through a bit of wrap as it goes.  Doing this before cutting the thread will pull any loose wrap up snug and assure you of a tight start.

The second reason is when you finish off the wrap on a fly rod guide.  You are four winds from the end.  You place a loop of thread under the winding and proceed with the last four wraps.  Now, if you place the thread up close to the guide foot the thread is likely to find its way up just beneath the guide foot in the pocket formed there.  When you pull the thread through, it slips into the pocket and the thread end that gets pulled with it is sitting in the pocket.  It may look secure but it is literally hanging on by a thread.  When you brush on the epoxy you knock it loose and wind up with a hanging loop.

The solution is to place your thread loop directly opposite the guide foot on the other side of the fly rod.  This keeps it as far away from the pocket as possible.  The second thing is to pull the thread loop out of the winding perpendicular to the fly rod or even better yet pointed slightly back toward the direction of the wind.  This will eliminate the tendency of the thread to slide up into the pocket.

Do these things and you will have nice tight loops on the ends of your guide wraps.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com Sometimes you need something other than a standard back cast. Sometimes a roll cast is called for. A roll cast is a great technique when you don’t have room for a back cast or you are using a sinking line or tip and need to get the line airborne.
If you ever played crack the whip when you were a kid, you have an idea of what a roll cast is. When you form a roll cast you have the line laying out in front of you and you flip a loop in the line that travels down to the end of the line. Here is how you do it.

Get about 20 feet of line out in front of you on the water. Reach up with rod hand and bring your rod tip up to about the one o’clock position. Have your rod slightly off vertical, out from your body. Bring the tip down as if you were casting. Do it with a smooth acceleration. With a little practice a you will form a loop in the line and the loop will travel down the line lifting it off the water as it goes.

If you are picking up sinking line, make sure you bring your tip up in a smooth but relatively rapid manner. Such a movement will cause the line to pull out of the water and plane on the surface. Once the line is up on the surface, the forward cast and subsequent loop will send it airborne where you can then execute a back cast.

Tip: when getting sinking line airborne reel line in so that you have no more than 20 or 25 feet out when you start the roll cast.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com  I’ve been busy building rods and haven’t been able to get in the mental mind frame to write about fly fishing.  I’ve been thinking about some things as I build these rods.  I’m especially touched by the things I do that make the fly rod a master craft product but are not necessarily easy to see.

I really got on this as I was winding some fly rod guides with silk thread.  You know, silk thread doesn’t look all that much different than nylon thread on a rod.  In fact silk thread is a pain in the butt.  It costs more than nylon.  It tends to fray more easily and pill if you aren’t careful while you are putting it on.  It is lighter and daintier so that it is easier to cross wrap as you are going.  And it is easily cut by sharp guide feet while you are coaxing them up the foot.  So, why use it?

For one it is classic fly rod material with a lot of tradition.  Second it is a natural material.  Third it is 25 times stronger than nylon.  Fourth, I can brag that more rod is wrapped with pure silk.  Silk is a craft material and I like that…..even if you can’t tell it’s silk by just looking at the rod.  So, there.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com If you are new to fly casting or just want to brush up on technique it is always good to have a set of fundamentals to go to.  Fly casting is simple and it is hard.  It is simple to learn and do.  Depending on who you are you can get the knack of it in between one and three hours.  Fly casting is hard to become consistent, proficient, efficient, and accurate at.

The number one rule of fly casting is PRACTICE.  Almost any sport requires practice.  Practicing fly casting when you are trying to catch fish is a bad idea.  Take time to practice technique.  So many fly fishermen don’t do this and it is the number one failing.

Make sure your rod is lined with the right weight line.  Start with the recommended weight and try line weights up and down one from the recommended to see which one works best for you.

Have your rod hand comfortably holding the grip preferably with the thumb on top so you can get a good purchase.  Have your other hand holding the fly line directly next to your casting hand.  Make sure your two hands move as one during the cast.

Have 15 to 20 feet of line out to start and strip some line from the reel so that you can let more out during the false cast.

Hold the rod with the tip up toward the 10 O’clock position and your arm raised so your hand is directly in front of your face.  Smoothly, but rapidly, accelerate the tip of the rod backwards.  Don’t bend your wrist.  Instead move your forearm.    Move back carrying the tip from 10 O’clock position to the 2 O’clock position.  Your hand should brush past your earlobe.  The tip should move in a straight line,not an arc.

Stop the rod smartly at the 2 O’clock position.  Let the fly line extend behind you FULLY.  Starting a forward cast before the line has fully extended will lose power and may snap your fly off the line.  Watch the line unfurl behind you until you get a sense and feeling for it.

Start the forward cast as soon as the line has unfurled.  Starting the forward cast too late will give you a pile of fly line tangled around  your feet.  Accelerate forward smartly and smoothly.  Stop your forward cast at 11 O’clock with a sharp stop.  Let line slide out of your fingers to get more line airborne.  Let the line completely unfurl if you are going  to make the cast a false cast.  Otherwise let the line unfurl to the water.

If your line unfurls and slaps the water you are casting too low.  Make sure to stop the rod a the 11 O’clock position, that the forward stroke of the rod tip is in a straight line and that the straight line is not tipped down at the front.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com Like any fly fishing the first thing to do when fishing nymph is to check with the local fly shop to see what they are taking.  Beyond that, there is no sense looking at hatch charts since flies can live in the nymph stage or larval stage for a long time.  Baetis mayfly and midges are available in most trout streams.  Baetis hatch between spring and fall and midges are out and about 24/7.

When you are on the river turn over the rocks to find nymphs.  Look for fist sized rocks or bigger that are under water but not embedded in the stream bed.  While matching the size of the nymphs is a useful objective consider both the water clarity and the need to get the fly down near the bottom of the stream.  If the water is colored consider a larger size.  If the stream is swift consider a larger heavier fly, weight the nose of the fly with split shot, or add leading to the body.

Some patterns that tend to work well that you may want to consider include Pheasant Tail, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Copper John, and March Brown.  Look especially to match the color of the nymphs you find in the river.  If you don’t find any then look to match the color of the river bed.  Nymphs will tend to closely match their surroundings as a camouflage mechanism.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com  In my last blog I discussed nymphing with a naked leader .  Today I am going to shift tempo and discuss the wimps way out, fly fish nymphing with a strike indicator.  Of course, there are benefits to being a wimp…like more fish on the hook.

A sink indicator does a number of things to help with catching fish.  First, it suspends your fly at a specific depth which reduces the number of rock snags and lost flies.  It also gives you more confidence to sink your fly lower without feeling like you are going to lose your fly!  An indicator also gives you clear signals on drag.  If you see your indicator skating across the water, it is (beyond) time to mend the line.  Make sure you don’t mend too much line and throw the indicator with the mend.

Use a small indicator and a moderately weighted fly.  You want to be able to cast the line and not have to lob it.  Casting technique parallels naked leader casting.  Go with a slack line cast, place the fly 1.5 to 2 times the distance up stream as the depth you are looking to achieve.

Sometimes you don’t have a choice but to use a large fly and/or extra weight.  If the river is risen and murky you may need to increase the fly size to make it visible to the fish.  You may also need to drop extra weight above your fly to get it to sink deep enough in the faster water.

Your rig is similar to a naked leader set up as well.  Follow the tippet diameter recommendations in the previous blog.  Make a sink indicator out of yarn and floatant or buy a commercial one.  Get one that easily slides up and down the line but stays in place as well.   Put the indicator about 1.5 times the depth of the water you are fishing for a slow to moderate stream.  For a faster river, increase the distance.  If you start snagging your fly on the bottom, reduce the distance to the indicator.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com I don’t know about you but I have always had a bit of an aversion to fishing heavy flies on leader with a strike indicator (notice we’re not allowed to call it a bobber). It seems too much like fishing with a bamboo pole and not enough like trying to fool a fish with an imitation meal. There is a reasonable compromise that puts at least a small smile on my face; that of naked lead fly fishing. This post is a follow on to the last post Nymphing with a Fly Rod .

By naked, I mean ‘no strike indicator’. Of course, this is a bit more of a challenge but then that’s what it is all about, isn’t it? Going naked let’s you use a lightly weighted fly on a fine tippet that lets the water bounce it around just like a real nymph. If you stick with tippet no heavier than 6X you can typically get away with a relatively light fly, like a size 14 Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear with a small bead head. You’ll get better casts with better presentation as well.

With 10x or smaller flies go with 6X or lighter tippet and drop to 5x only if you are using larger flies. In water up to 3 or 4 ft of moderate speed the fly should be heavy enough to reach down to where the fish are. You don’t need to reach the bottom. The fish will rise a foot or so to take a nymph as it is not unusual for nymph to be caught in the current. Run out a good amount of tippet. Three feet is good and four feet isn’t too much. The extra tippet will allow the nymph to behave in a more lifelike way.

The nymph will sink faster on slack leader than on tight line. Do a bounce cast, pile cast, tuck cast or S-curve cast to put some slack in the line. Do an upstream cast above your suspected holding spot but with at least a 15 degree angle so that you don’t drop the fly line over the fish. Cast one and a half to two times the depth you are looking for to give the fly time to sink. Mend the line so that the nymph isn’t dragged through the water but strip in line as the fly floats down so that little slack line is exposed.

Detecting a strike is bit of art form that comes from fishing naked for a while. The trick to reading a strike on a naked leader is to keep the fly line tip high in the water. A high quality floating line is a good idea and greasing the first 5 or 6 feet of line with dry-fly floatant is recommended. A strike may come as a forceful hit or it may come as a detectable slowing, a twitch, or an odd change in the lines s-curve that just doesn’t look right. Strike when you detect one of these oddities.

Once the fly has been allowed to reach depth and you are stripping in line as the fly comes downstream, you can try short strips to pull the nymph higher in the current, letting it go slack and drop back down in a rhythmic pattern. While such an action appears counter to letting the nymph dead drift it appears to provide some liveliness that can elicit a strike. It is not a replacement for a dead drift but is useful tactic.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com A nymph is the immature form of an insect, which undergoes incomplete metamorphosis before reaching its adult stage; unlike a typical larva, a nymph’s overall form already resembles that of the adult. In addition, while a nymph moults it never enters a pupal stage. Instead, the final moult results in an adult insect. Damselfly, Dragonfly, Mayfly, and Stonfly all go through a nymph stage.

Nymphs are hatched out of the egg which is embedded in the river/lake bottom in sand, mud etc. Nymph feed on algae and can be found on the underside of rocks and stones on the river bottom.

Stonefly Nymph

Nymphs can be dislodged from their location on the bottom of the river and swept downstream. This is one reason you may find fish hanging out below a set of riffles waiting for a meal.

To fish nymphs you want to get your fly down deep near the bottom. You don’t want to dredge the river by you do want to ride just below the bottom. You can fish with a a naked leader or with a strike indicator. Its a bit more tricky with a naked leader but you get more control of what is going on and it feels more like fly fishing to me than does the other.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about how to fish nymphs with a naked leader.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com It used to be that manufacturers produced multiplying reels. These reels took up more than one revolution of line for every turn of the handle. The idea was to allow the fly fisherman to reel in faster when a fish was running toward you. These reels were complex and prone to breakage and have lost out to the simplicity of today’s reels.

To get back some of that fast retrieve, and frankly to create more differentiation and “newness” in reel design, manufacturers have come out with large arbor reels. Perhaps next will be larger diameter reels — who knows.

Large arbor reels have a larger internal spindle (aka arbor) and wider reel than standard reels. The size of the arbor is actually immaterial since you can always build out the reel with additional backing. What is relevant is the width of the reel. This makes the amount of line retrieved on each revolution higher. There is a lot of variation in specifications but a typical standard arbor 4 wt reel will have a 3″ reel that is 3/4″ in width. A wide spool reel for a 4wt rod will have a 3″ reel with a 1″ width. Let’s compare the two:

• When the spool of line is .5″ down from full on a standard arbor reel:
• the large arbor reel will be .4″
• the large arbor reel will take up line 5 percent faster

• When the spool of line is 1″ down from full on a standard arbor reel:
  • the large arbor reel will be .7″
  • the large arbor reel will take up line 15 percent faster

• When the spool of line is 1.5″ down from full on a standard arbor reel:
  • the large arbor reel will be 1″
  • the large arbor reel will take up line 33 percent faster

A thirty three percent gain in stripping speed would seem pretty good. However, one must consider the fact that most fish can swim at a sustained rate of 5 to 10 miles per hour or 1750 to 3500 inches per second. Even with a full spool of line on the reel, one would have to reel in at 280 to 560 revolutions per second with a fish coming straight at you. I don’t think so. You would likely do better stripping line by hand and forgetting the reel altogether.

by Mark Waldin www.flycatcherinc.com The reel is the piece of gear that holds the fly line and backing while not in use. It also provides drag to slow down a running fish. Major differences in fly reels comes in the areas of construction and strength, arbor size and width, and drag system. Reels are expensive and if you are looking at one that is not, then you will probably be disappointed in it when it breaks and a fish gets away.

There is no set way to tell you what you need in terms of construction other than point out things that may a good reel. The characteristics that help identify a well constructed reel are:

*Less is more. The more the reel is made out of a single piece of metal the better. A single piece frame and reel seat is ideal but expensive.

*Less screws, nuts and bolts the better. These tend to work loose and need tightening.

*The frame should have excellent side to side support with adequate crossbars to protect the frame from twisting and bending.

*The best reels are machined from a solid block of metal. Cast and machined reels are not as strong.

*The reel should be easily and quickly removed for changing spools.

*The drag system should be well constructed, smooth and reliable.

*The handle should be simple and small. Multi-jointed reel handles will hang the fly line and cause undue headaches.

The arbor on the reel is the center spindle that the line winds around. Lately, wide arbor reels have become popular. These reels have arbors that have a much larger diameter. They compensate for the loss of line capacity by making the reel wider. The main claimed advantage is that each revolution of the reel will take up more line than a narrow arbor reel. This is true but once you realize that most of the time you are fishing from the fly line and not going deep into the backing line, this becomes primarily an academic argument, but the choice is yours.