dry fly in the calm water

[FFChineseman]

Hello everyone,

Just want to ask a quick question about fishing dry fly ( size 18 or smaller) in a calm water ( like a lake or certain part of the creek where water is still) or very slowly moving water.

how do you guys present the fly? just cast it out and let it sits on the surface? how long before you reel it back and do another cast?

I fish dry fly usually in the running water and let the current carry it downstream a little bit and usually the fish are sitting in the calmer water in the end of the current.

thanks for your help. int:

 

[midnightangler]

You shouldn't cast dry flies to calm water until you see a fish rise. Blind-casting dries is usually not a great strategy for flat water. You will be lucky to catch many fish this way.

When approaching rising fish in slow, flat water, fewer casts yield better results. When you do pick up the fly, use a roll-cast pickup to minimize the amount of disturbance. You should leave your fly on the surface long enough to allow it to drift well past the holding lie of the fish you are casting to. You don't want to make more than 2 or 3 casts per rise. If you get a few (less than five) good drifts past a fish and it doesn't take, assume the fish doesn't want your imitation and change flies.

I also think that its better to approach fish from across the current instead of immediately downstream if the situation allows (which it often does in slow water). this way you can keep the fly line away from the fish through the entire course of the drift.

I don't know much about fishing small dry flies in lakes. It's never come up.

 

[Bruno]

skitter that fly. I had a very successful hour or so the other day doing this. I was dragging the dryfly across a very slow pool and the fish we nailing it.


I did not intend to fish this way but as i was pulling my line in to change flies ( cause i was not catching anything) a fish chased it down. I just kept going that way and caught 6 or so in an hour.


Who really knows what they want

 

[FFChineseman]

so ture, never know what they really want. one day, i was ready to leave the water and practicing my roll cast. In my last cast, i slamed a fly and the line onto the water ( not purposely) , and guess what, a nice size brown took the fly and I got my self another fish from my casting practice.

 

[Bruno]

i slamed a fly and the line onto the water .

That is called slapping the hamster. I do it all the time if is very effective. :lol:

 

[osprey]

I'd go along with MidnightAngler to a certain degree , i'd try to spot a rising fish first and if that didn't work i'd try to spot a fish holding somewhere , if that didn't work the first few casts i'd probably just put down easy and let 'em sit for awhile but before i left that water i'd try slapping it down , twitching it , skating it , even sinking it on purpose before i moved on to the next pool or lie.

 

[dryflyguy]

Fish often cruise around in slow or still water, and rise whenever they come across an insect on the surface.
When I see fish doing this, I try to guess the direction they're headed - and cast my fly to where, hopefully, they will intercept it.
And as odd as it seems to just let a fly sit on the waters surface for while, I have caught many fish doing this.
Of course there are also times when the fish suddenly veers off in another direction - foiling the plan

 

[hughzar]

Bruno wrote:
That is called slapping the hamster. I do it all the time if is very effective.

That is likely some of the best fly fishing terminology that I have ever heard!

 

[osprey]

DryFlyGuy..........Those cruisers sometimes it's all about the timing , they sometimes cruise around rising at regular intervals , if there is an abundance of food the do it with clocklike frequency and that's when your timing comes in , i learned about those "cruisers" on a stillwater pond/lake down east in Elizabethtown Pa. , DelaChes sportsmans club , they would put some huge fish in there and many of them became "cruisers" the fly that worked the best for me on them was a Griffiths gnat sometimes as small as 24.........FUN!!!!

 

[dryflyguy]

Anyone who has fished the big western rivers - or the delaware - has likely seen big pods of cruisers moving around picking bugs off of the surface. And it can be very un-nerving to have 20-30 fish slurping insects all around your fly while you just wait for one to take yours. One of fly fishings best experiences IMO.

 

[osprey]

Dryflyguy......i second the motion on fishing for cruisers as being one of the most enjoyable of fly fishing experiences , also about the un-nerving part but the rewards are worth the frayed nerves , seems like it's usually the bigger fish that get into the cruising mode. I gotta make it to the Delaware , i've heard about the pods of cruisers never fished there yet but it's on the list.

 

[flipnfly]

is it true that the slower the water the more accurate and natural the fly should look? example you wouldnt want to fish an attractor fly like a patriot on a really slow pool right because it doenst look natural but then again if there isnt an active hatch why not? does that make some kinds of sense? and slapping the hamster wouldn't that be animal cruelty?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

In slow water the trout have much more time to inspect your fly!

 

[TUNA]

During the Winter months I fish a Patriot on the Limestoners around Central PA. If I see fish holding in the middle of the water column I tie on a Patriot, size 16-22. I also always tie on some type of midge behind it. One of my favorite setups on a sunny Winter day would be a size 18 Patriot, Parachute or Wulff style, 2-3 feet of tippet, a size 22-26 Black, Olive, Tan, or Cream Midge, and then sometimes a 3-4 section of tippet and a size 20-24 unweighted nymph, or Midge emerger. It's surprising how many fish will hit the Patriot over the other flies. It seems to work better on slower sections for me. If I don't use that set up, I like to fish a Caddis pattern, usually Elk Hair and CDC, with a 3-5 dropper tied to the bend, with a small beadhead weighted nymph attached. With the nymph "holding" back the Caddis, you can really make it dance and bounce in all sorts of ways on slower water.

Last May, I went with my Dad to the PA State Bowling Tournament in Allentown, and the bowling alley was located next to Jordan Creek. I fished one morning from 6 am until 2 pm and caught close to 50 trout (they did stock it the day before). I used 2 flies the whole time: Elk Hair and Olive CDC Dry with a Flashback Pheasant tail dropped down 4 feet. Almost all the fish came from a slow pool that reminded me more of a pond than of a stream. At first the fish would charge the fly then turn away at the last second. I tried dancing the Caddis and it made a big difference. I've had some of my best days of dry fly fishing using a "dancing" Caddis imitation.

 

[osprey]

Tuna.......isn't that method just deadly? the old timers who taught me used to do that with bait , either a strung minnow or worm , on the end and two dry flies for droppers man you can reallly clean up if there are ovipositing (sp?) egg laying caddis on the water , even wild trout fall for that trick , i just lost the bait and either use a weighted nymph or a small streamer on the end.