Tips for Dry Fly Fishing - Learning the Basics 

One of the harder things to do in fly-fishing is to successfully fish a dry fly.

I am certainly not an expert, but I have spoken to many of them, read their books and attended the occasional seminar.  What I have put down here is my top 5 list of things that have helped me.  If you too are trying to learn the art - I hope this helps.

1.)  In almost all cases you will need to cast upstream and off to one side of the fish.

When trout are surface feeding they are looking up.  It's important to get behind them to prevent spooking 'em.

2.) Do not try to set the hook directly upon seeing the strike.

This is still very difficult for me.  Here's the why you should pause; Mr. Trout is swimming up to take what he thinks is food, and his mouth is pointing skyward.  When you tighten the line, the fly just comes right out of his mouth.  A better method is to wait a full second (one mississippi...) before tightening the line, because now he is going downwards and the line will lead the hook right into his lip. 

3.) A drag-free drift is critical!

Unless you are fishing riffles or in some pretty strong wind, you must allow your fly to drift naturally.  By drag-free I mean that there is no wake behind the fly.  It should float on the surface being propelled by the speed and surface tension of the water alone.  Below is a video of a good drag-free drift.

4.) Use floatant sparingly.

Too much floatant will actually cause the fly to sink.  Place the smallest drop you can get out of the bottle on a finger.  Now rub that finger to your thumb, and apply to the fly hackles and dubbing.

5.) Don't cast in a manner that makes the fly "splash-down".

This is tough - for me - but I picked up somewhere that if you cast for a spot about 12" above your actual target and allow the fly to fall to the surface (rather than firing it in there like lawn dart) it tends to not spook the fish.  The other advantage of casting above your spot is that your line will land with a slight (or not so slight) "S" curve to it.  This immediatly allows the fly to drift drag-free.