Standard Dry Dropper is the industry standard for a reason. Because it’s what you get when you simply add a nymph on behind the dry fly. Sometimes, that pairing is perfect, and with a good cast and even better mending skills, this standard setup catches trout all day long.
It’s a useful style that solves a lot of problems. Especially if you surrender to the idea that the nymph is the primary fly being fished . . .
The pre-cast is a simple motion that lifts some (or all) of the fly line off the water and gets the leader moving. It’s an elegant solution to a common problem.
When the dry fly drift is over, simply activate the line and get it moving before starting the backcast. The motion of the pre-cast pickup breaks the hold of surface tension. And that’s the key. Once the surface lets go of the line, it is easily lifted off the water with minimal disturbance . . .
Light Dry Dropper is perfect for offering the dry fly as a primary choice. And sometimes, the frequency of takes on the added nymph is stunning.
Fishing a nymph under a dry fly is rarely as simple as adding a nymph and casting it out there. Some forethought into what your objectives truly are, measured against your options for rigging and fly selection, goes a long way toward filling the net with trout . . .
Fishing the summer months is a protracted game of hide and seek, where more often, the angler loses. Every condition favors the trout.
It’s August, and we need rain again. The rivers have taken on a familiar, thirsty look — deep in the heart of summer. Water trickles through the pockets. It sinks into dry rocks like a sponge. We see the skeleton of an ecosystem. And the distilled, clear flow is low enough to reveal the watershed’s deepest secrets. Wading these wet trails requires composure and patience . . .
Presenting natural, convincing or looks-like-real-food drifts is the responsibility of every angler. Whether the flies are light or heavy, whether we’re drifting weighted flies, drop shot or split shot, it’s our ability to adjust, to refine and endlessly improve that keeps us wading into a river anew with each trip.
It’s why we love the nymphing game . . .
“Fishing dry dropper” can really mean a lot of things. And each of these styles has many moments when it’s the clear winner.
So the next time someone talks about dry dropper fishing, ask them what style — because there’s a lot of room for variety.
Like everyone else, I’ve waded through the fly bins, the magazine articles and the endless catalogs of new patterns trying to understand what flies I should carry. But the best fishermen I know all have a handful of go to patterns that they use ninety percent of the time — probably more. Most of those patterns are dead simple. My own handful of flies is basic, yet refined enough to cover any situation encountered on the water . . .
Part of what distinguishes fly fishing from other styles of fishing is retrieving line by hand. But then we need to get the line back out there. When should we shoot the line back through the rod guides? No one ever seems to talk about these options. But there are four of them.
We can shoot line on the pickup, on the backcast, on the forward cast and on the forward cast following the power stroke . . .
The churning waves, the cuts, troughs and sandbars of beach water mimic the flows of a good river that is full of structure. And tearing apart the differences to find the similarities between the two water systems is a challenge that’s renewed with each trip to the salt . . .