Mending is a skill unique to fly fishing. And good mending seems to elude all but the best anglers. Bad mending is hard to watch, because it does more harm than good — actually introducing drag and hurting the natural drift of a fly. But skillful mending extends drifts for long distances, providing just the right amount of grace and slack to the fly, therefore offering a natural look to the trout.
One of the easiest mending styles to learn, and one of the most valuable, is what I call the Hop Mend. You can see it in the video below, and the intricacies of the Hop Mend are detailed throughout this article.
We mend to prevent tension on the dry fly or the indicator. All flies could drift drag free in the current if not for tension from the attached leader. So it’s our job to eliminate or at least limit that tension on the tippet and to the fly.
When using tactics that lay fly line and leader on the water, we’re really doing the opposite of what I call the tight line advantage. Tight lining keeps all the line possible off the water. But here, we’re laying line on the water, for a variety of good reasons. And with the line on the water, one common way to prevent tension and drag is the mend.
Here’s the Hop Mend VIDEO. (Please select 1080p for best resolution.)
Mend When Necessary
In many Troutbitten articles, I’ve made the point that I don’t mend the line on the water all that much. Because I feel that it’s much better to set things up in the air in the first place, with good line turnover and some aerial adjustments.
But I’m also not aiming for extra-long drifts very often. So I don’t need to mend much.
But certainly, there’s a time and place for great mending. I know it’s a skill that took me a long time to learn and be comfortable with. And in teaching these kinds of things, I’ve found that the small mend, what I call a Hop Mend, is a great start. It teaches all the concepts and skills necessary to branch out into other kinds of mends, and it installs a very useful technique to use daily on the water.
What’s a Hop Mend?
This Hop Mend is an arch. It’s a steep and quick half-oval. It’s a fast motion up, over and down with the fly rod. It’s powerful and swift, but not overdone.
These are small, short hops, at whatever angles and degrees it takes to keep tension off the dry fly or indicator. Most often the Hop Mend throws slack upstream, but sometimes, drifting in varied currents requires a downstream mend as well.
Generally, I keep my rod pointed at the fly or indy. And my mends start with the rod tip just downstream. After a quick hop, the rod finishes by pointing upstream of the indy. But take note, that description is very general, and real-world river conditions throw us a lot of variables.
Watch the video above for a great look at the Hop Mend. It’s definitely something we need to see to best understand.
Mending Tips
I wrote another article titled, Five Tips for Better Mending, where I broke down some of the most important, but often missed, elements of good mending. These tips really apply to all types of mends, and not just the Hop Mend.
READ: Troutbitten | Five Tips for Better Mending
Here’s a summary of key points for great mending technique:
- Start with slack first.
- Use the line hand.
- Use speed. (Everything in casting and mending is better if you do it swiftly.)
- Mend the fly line and the leader, often all the way up to the dry or indy.
- Never let the line be grabbed by surface tension. Don’t let it rest. Keep it hoping.
- Grease a leader for better mending.
- Mend more. Mend Sooner.
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
Excellent video. Watching this I could see exactly what I need to do for an effective mend. I will practice this next time I fish. Thanks.
Nice
Great video Dom. Are you hopping up and down with the rod tip or somewhat in a circle in order to get that loop in the line. The video lo0oks like its more of an up and down motion. As always I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I have learned so much.
Remember, it’s an arch. It’s up, over and down.
You don’t fool me. I could tell your video was all CGI, voodoo or black magic. How you ask? Well, in the opening, when your doppelganger was walking to the river (and who walks that slow anyway?) it was able to duck under the downed tree with out getting tripped up by the net. Had it been a real person in the video, you know damn well that net would have reach up and snagged that limb and then all hell would have broken loose!
Another cool video Dom – keep them coming…
You got me.
Excellent video, Dom!
Cheers.
Thanks for an excellent lesson on mending. Were you using a mono rig, or a traditional floating fly line in this video?
Thanks!
Fly line and Harvey leader.
Beautiful morning! Your shooting angles looking directly at the tip from the front and back really show the precise motion of the rod movement for the hop…nice!
When do you shift over to a regular fly line from the mono rig (I presume it’s a floating line), when you want to fish at distance with a dry fly or dry dropper? I seem to recall if you just want to fish nymphs at distance you keep the mono rig on but add the Dorsey indicator. Correct?
Dom, I don’t think my question above in response to your reply to Roger Stover is probably clear enough…
In your reference to “fly line and Harvey Leader” did you mean you were using a traditional floating line, not a euro fly line? If so, was this on your euro rod? Devin Olsen talks about adding a dry fly euro leader formula attached to the euro fly line. Please clarify…thanks!
Hi Richard,
Yes, I use a standard fly line with the Harvey Leader.
Rod, honestly, does not matter. I was using the Hardy Ultralite 10′ 4 weight that I choose most every day. But you can do the hop mend with any rod. Euro nymphing built rods will also cast dries.
Sure, you can cast a dry fly with a euro line, but your options are very limited. Things like the hop mend will be underpowered. The beauty of a fly line is that it has power to push the leader and fly around any way you want it. Euro lines are a big compromise, only useful/necessary if you are trying to follow FIPS rules, in my opinion. Other than that, they actually hold you back. And, ironically, dry flies cast better on a standard Mono Rig.
https://troutbitten.com/2021/01/04/euro-nymphing-fly-line-vs-the-mono-rig/
Hope that helps.
Cheers.
Dom
Thanks, Dom.
I went to the link and believe I finally understand. Not knowing any better, I have rigged my euro rod with a euro line, thinking I’ll achieve the benefits of less sag if the line gets out the rod tip but I don’t think it does unless a fish pulls it out because I use a 24-30 ft 20# mono leader (again, to keep leader-line connections out of the guides). What was confusing me is fishing at distance with a Dorsey indicator, streamer, or dry fly as you’ve described in your articles. Sounds like you keep a traditional floating line on your rod attached to the mono leader but then you switch over to a floating fly leader formula when you plan to focus on dry fly fishing. Thus, mending comes into play when fishing at distance with streamers, dry flies. Do I have that right?
Sure do! So now you see why the euro line is limiting. Frankly, it’s unnecessary.
Dom
Do you think that sometimes the rate and size of the mend should be adjusted, depending on the speed of the current and amount of turbulence?Perhaps on slow, smooth waters, it might be better to make larger, less frequent mends, as sometimes it doesn’t take that much surface disturbance to spook the fish, or even draw their attention toward the mend itself, especially with dries?