PODCAST: Dry Fly Skills Series #7 — Fishing Dry Flies — S12, Ep7

by | Sep 15, 2024 | 3 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

For this final episode in the dry fly skills series, we work through some scenarios that anglers frequently encounter. Because, just like nymphing, fishing streamers and fishing wets, we fish dry flies for many different reasons and in many different ways.

We addressed some of this in episode one, and in this final episode, we complete the bookend by thinking about how things layout and going through some strategy and thought processes. Now that we’ve spent a good bit of time on leader design, fly selection, casting, building in slack, we consider these four scenarios:

Head Hunting
Fishing Terrestrials
Small Stream Stuff
Working a Hatch

My friend, Matt Grobe, joins me to put a cap on this Dry Fly Skills series.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly Fishing
READ: Troutbitten | Two Ways to Spat a Terrestrial Dry Fly
READ: Troutbitten | Twelve Small Stream Fly Casting Tips

Listen with the player above, or . . .

Find the Troutbitten podcast on any of these services:

— Apple Podcasts
— Spotify
— Google Podcasts
— Amazon Music
. . . and everywhere else where you listen to podcasts.

You can find the dedicated Troutbitten Podcast page at . . .

podcast.troutbitten.com

Season Thirteen of the Troutbitten Podcast begins in just a few weel.. So look for that in your Troutbitten podcast feed.

Fish hard, friends.

 

** Donate ** If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

 

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

 

Share This Article . . .

Since 2014 and 1000+ articles deep
Troutbitten is a free resource for all anglers.
Your support is greatly appreciated.

– Explore These Post Tags –

Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

More from this Category

PODCAST: Why Do We Catch Trout In Patches? — S13, Ep1

PODCAST: Why Do We Catch Trout In Patches? — S13, Ep1

Why do we catch trout in patches? Because when we get to the end of the day, we often look back to remember catching three trout in one spot, then nothing for a while. Maybe we missed two and landed five in another spot. We had three at the best undercut bank and another handful at the tailout . . . but in between, there were often long periods of inactivity. Why is that?

VIDEO: The Lagging Curve Cast — Dead Drifts for Days (Fly Casting Skills)

VIDEO: The Lagging Curve Cast — Dead Drifts for Days (Fly Casting Skills)

The Lagging Curve is a beautiful way to provide slack to a dry fly, and it’s my favorite way to get perfect dead drifts to a dry fly in rivers. I fish a lagging curve at just about any angle, using both a forehand and backhand cast, and it provides slack to a dry fly for days.

The lagging curve is really the opposite of what most people mean by a curve cast. This is an underpowered curve and not a power curve.

The leader design matters a lot, and so does the casting stroke. I cover it all in the video . . .

PODCAST: Dry Fly Skills Series #5 — All About the Flies — S12, Ep5

PODCAST: Dry Fly Skills Series #5 — All About the Flies — S12, Ep5

The flies matter. But more than anything, it’s about matching the moment, the water type, the lifecycle of the bug – and even the wind conditions. For us, those conditions — those situations — dictate our next fly choice.

We don’t guess on patterns. Instead, we think about things, develop a theory and test it with the next fly choice and (hopefully) a great presentation.

PODCAST: Dry Fly Skills Series #3 — Casting and Mending — S12, Ep4

PODCAST: Dry Fly Skills Series #3 — Casting and Mending — S12, Ep4

Ten and two. Acceleration and crisp stops between two points. Pause and allow turnover to happen. Feel the rod load and watch it all happen with the fly line in the air. Once you have that timing, your baseline is set, and you can take that same stroke to any rod angle, punching the fly around and laying things out just how you want them with a few adjustments.

Good mending is setup by good casting. Put the two together, and you can feed slack to a dry fly for perfect drag free drifts.

What do you think?

Be part of the Troutbitten community of ideas.
Be helpful. And be nice.

3 Comments

  1. Dom and company —
    Just finished your dry fly fishing podcast series, and loved it.

    Question — I’m trying to use your leader formulas, and am having some frustrations with the blood knot. I try to tie the segments with the specified lengths, but my sections are generally 1-2 inches too long. This is less of an issue with longer segments, but 1-2 is quite large for 6″ and 8″ segments. My guess is that the blood knots start out “too loose”, but I’m not sure. Any suggestions on how to address this issue?

    Many thanks!

    Reply
    • Hi there. I think everyone needs to find there own “waste” length. But for me, it’s about 1.5 inches. On each side, I allow an extra 1.5 inches of material. This consistently works for me, so I end up with the expected length (almost) every time.

      Make sense?

      Dom

      Reply
      • Yep, thanks!

        Any thoughts on using surgeons knot instead? Easier and movable…

        Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Articles

Recent Posts

Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

Pin It on Pinterest