Jeff is a friend from what seems like another life. I’m now so firmly entrenched with this Troutbitten business, that it’s easy to lose touch with many of the good people I knew from the nearly two decades I spent as a full-time, gigging musician. So when Jeff messaged me about fishing, I was happy to catch up and cast to some trout together. I offered to play guide for the first hour or two and then just fish.

Jeff and I got an early start, and we walked the edge of a corn field on our way to the water. It was early enough that heavy dew slid down thick green leaves and into the corn stalks. On the other side of the corn rows, the river was a mixed set of braided island channels, flats and undercuts. It was perfect water for doing just about anything on a fly rod. Streamers, nymphs, wets and dries were all fair options, and I wasn’t surprised when Jeff decided to prospect with dry flies.

PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Versatile Angler

We rigged up a Harvey Dry Leader and started about a hundred feet below the lower tip of a mini-island, where merging currents created a wonderfully complex set of lanes, mixing food and flow for the trout — making it easy for the fish to eat while also presenting the angler with unique challenges.

I talked with Jeff about prospecting with dry flies, and as we tied on a Parachute Ant, we saw two small rising trout. Sure, we would cast to those targets, I said. But overall, our goal was to cover water and show the floating ant to a bunch of fish. In the next hour, I reminded him, we should cover the entire right side of the braid.

With agreement from Jeff, he set to the task of getting dead drifts on a dry fly. But just a few casts in, I knew the problem. He couldn’t see the fly. And before I asked about it, Jeff spoke up.

“I can’t see that pattern, Dom. I don’t think it’s floating high enough,” he told me.

“Give it a few more casts,” I suggested. “You’ll settle in.”

Just a few minutes later, and after some repositioning to the other side of the main seam, Jeff shook his head again. He looked back to me as he stripped in his line and grabbed the dry fly. Holding the hook between his fingers, he showed me the ant.

“I think this is just getting dragged under by the currents every time. Don’t you think we need a bushier dry? Maybe something with foam or more yarn up top,” Jeff said. “I only saw the fly on a couple of those drifts.”

I smiled at my friend and shook my head. “Nah,” I told him. “It’s floating. And I saw it every time. It’s not drag free yet, but it is floating!”

Photo by Bill Dell

Seeing the fly upon entry is step-one of the dry fly game. If you can’t see it, you can’t fish it. The old adage about just watching where you think your fly should be is bad advice. The joy of dry fly fishing, and what makes it successful, is seeing the dry fly. We see the fly’s position and judge its speed among the bubbles and against the currents. When it drags, we recast and give the next trout a chance to eat the fly.

Surely, there are a host of solutions for better seeing the dry fly. And I’ve tried all of them . . .

Choosing advantageous light angles is important. No one can see into the black-water glare of a low sun or the white highlights of a high one. So we simply move our bodies to where we can see the surface.

READ: Troutbitten | Find the Best Light Angles, and See What You’re Fishing

Larger, bushier and more buoyant flies is an option. But too often, going larger with the fly or choosing one with more materials, is going in the wrong direction, especially for selective trout. Because usually, smaller and more sparse seals the deal.

Brighter parachutes, Fluoro Fiber, Krystal Flash, Widow’s Web and dyed fluorescent wings are good solutions too. Sometimes, these slight additions or adjustments to a pattern are all it takes to bring a visible fly back to the angler.

But too often, none of these solutions helps much.

Photo by Austin Dando

I traded positions with Jeff and accepted the fly rod to make a few casts to the same seams that he’d just fished. On each cast I pointed to my fly immediately upon entry, and on over half of those drifts, Jeff located the fly once I pointed to it. We followed it together, until the fly began sliding out of its lane. On the last drift, a nice pounder (twelve inch trout) confidently sipped the ant and turned back down. I set the hook, landed the fish and motioned for Jeff to follow me upstream ten yards to the next great spot.

“We could go bigger or brighter with the fly,” I told him. “But I don’t want to, because a nice trout just ate this one. This is what they’ve been eating every day. This size and this color. We can see it, but we have to know where it’s going.”

“What do you mean?” Jeff asked. “Are you talking about keeping it in one seam again, making sure it’s a dead drift?”

“No,” I said directly, as I handed the fly rod back to my friend. “All of that comes second.”

I pointed at the inside of the next seam, just left of a medium flow full of bubbles. No doubt, a half dozen trout were lined up underneath those bubbles and waiting for an easy meal.

“Your first job is to find some accuracy. You’ll see the fly every time, once you can hit your targets.” I nodded at the fly again. “There’s enough visibility built into that fly that you can find it quickly, as long as the fly lands where you’re looking.”

Jeff chuckled a bit and stripped line off the reel to start casting again. I stepped bankside to rig up my ow rod with streamers and watched him as I slid the leader through the guides. He had some work to do, there was no doubt. But I knew that hard work is all it would take. Jeff had a good casting stroke. He understood the goal of landing with s-curves in a dry fly leader and how to get there with a Stop and Drop or a lagging curve.

He just needed time. That’s all that was left. He needed repetitions, mistakes and refinement.

READ: Troutbitten | How to Be a More Accurate Fly Caster

Fish hard, friends.

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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com