Back to Basics: What you need to know to catch fish on a dry fly on your first time fishing.

Recently I spent a couple days fishing with some first-time fly fishermen in the mountain streams south of Lake Tahoe in northern California. I reviewed the basics as quickly as possible, as I always think it is better to learn by doing than by listening. Here are a few things I mention quickly:

1) The fly line is what you cast (since the fly is pretty much weightless). If you don’t have enough fly line (at least 8 ft or so) out then you won’t be able to cast.

2) Casting is different from waving – put some muscle into your cast and snap your rod like a whip to get the fly to go where you want.

3) Make sure you can see your fly. Just toss your line out on some calm water right in front of you to get used to finding your fly on the water’s surface.

4) Always hold onto the fly line with your non-rod hand. Don’t use the reel unless you’re packing up – instead just pull the line with your hand to bring it in.

5) Cast your fly so it drifts along disturbances on the water (rifles, swirls) and under the water (rocks, changes in depth).

6) If your fly isn’t floating, cast again.

While everyone picked things up quite quickly, they had some questions I did not anticipate:

Q-1) Where should I stand?

A-1) Anywhere you like, but here are some pointers: Don’t get too close to a hole (on a small stream/hole you want to be at least 10 feet away, unless there are lots of disturbances like rocks, trees, etc. or really fast moving water). Look behind you – make sure you have enough room to back-cast. Make sure when you cast to a spot that there aren’t any disturbances right in front of you (casting over a log or rock or fast current makes it hard to get a nice drift).

Q-2) How long should I leave the fly out on the water?

A-2) As long as your fly is floating and not just sitting somewhere stagnant, keep it out there. Once it sinks under the surface, wait a couple more seconds, twitch your rod back a little bit (I catch a lot of fish this way – the couple seconds right after a dry fly sinks it is still very effective!), and then you should cast again.

Q-3) What am I trying to accomplish by having the fly drift down the river?

A-3) Most fish (at least in rivers/streams) stay in a holding pattern facing upstream in a gentle current and wait for food to drift down above and around them. You want your fly to look like a bug that has landed on the water and is just cruising downstream. Of course bugs also move around on top of and below the water’s surface, so if your fly moves a bit that isn’t a bad thing. You do not, however, want your fly to drag to one side of the current or do anything that a real bug wouldn’t do.

Q-4) How long should I keep fishing in the same spot?

A-4) In the smallest streams, I usually don’t cast more than four or five times in the same area. Fish get spooked easily and it’s better to move on. In larger streams and rivers your effectiveness won’t go down much by staying in the same spot, but I like to move on after ten casts or so anyway (unless the spot looks super good, in which case I might try a new fly pattern in the same spot). Covering a lot of water – sometimes I hike for miles – is more fun to me and I am always looking for better holes just around the next bend.

If you get a rise (where a fish “rises” to try to eat your fly) or see a fish come up to take a look at your fly, you should definitely keep casting to the same spot. If you can’t get them to take another look, you might even consider switching flies and casting to the same fish again. If you catch a fish, even in pretty sizeable water, all of the surrounding fish will be spooked when you bring the fish in, so it’s usually best to move on.

Hopefully this is useful information. We’ll be posting more articles on the basics – selecting equipment, selecting flies, etc – in the near future. Good luck!