Down and Across Wet Fly Presentation - July 2009 TPO Tip of the Month

[JUICE]

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ggTqqSURxY&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ggTqqSURxY&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

[jason]

excellent video! Aaron, it looks like you are retrieving line during the drift...is that to keep contact with the flies?

[Troutastic]

Aaron, if I heard correctly you said you had a 3 fly setup on your rig, how does that work? Would you put your heaviest nymph at the back of the rig, and are they spaced a certain distance apart? Also, would these flies be at different depths with that retrieve?

[mike734]

-OK Aaron...I hear u saying that these flies are dead drifting...now is this just like fishing dries down and across and achieving a dead drift?

-When I see that semi- tight line I have to assume this drift is not absolutely dead... is this correct or are the flies on a perfect dead-as-doornail drift?

-Any special cast that should be made to achieve a good mend here...some sort of reach cast?

thanks in advance..I was just staying with my gf and her family down in AC and Monica asked about you...I showed her the Montana pics.

[alanb_ct]

You all should consider watching Davy Wotton's DVD entitled "Wet Fly Ways."

[Davyfly]

OK, no disrespect to my friend Aaron here, but my definition of fishing wet flies across and down differs.
'First the cast has to be made more or less directly across stream, if not you are not able to maintain a long dead drift.

What you aim to do is this. Make the cast with the 3 flies so they lay out in a straight line across the stream, immediately they land you make a upstream mend with slack line and feed to that further slack line to maintain the dead drift mode of the flies so that they do not in any way direct all in a straight line down stream.
This allows for your 3 flies which will be or should be in the region of from the tail fly to the top dropper fly 60 ins apart present themselves so as each fly is viewed by the trout within those zones at different angles.
With practice this can be achieved for very long downstream dead drift drifts.
In order to do this you must have at the ready the line to feed, there can be no hindrance of line feed , if there is the flies will be moved by the current in a straight line direction and dead drift mode effective is lost.

There will be at the termination of your dead drift a period when the flies will swing across current and this may be the time also a fish will take.

If you become highly skilled and you use what we term as a top dropper or a bob fly you animate this fly on its down stream track so that it imitates a emerger or a drowned struggling terrestrial it can be a deadly tactic.
By and large when l fish this mode what l am aiming to do is to present flies that induce fish to rise to the surface take them as if they were natural bugs and soft hackles are no 1 choices here at this time.

If you watch my Wet fly ways DVD here l demonstrate many if the way l use across and downstream techniques.

A 10 or a 11ft rod greatly enhances this technique, l use also at times a 12ft single handed rod when fishing large river systems

It is totally different to fishing dead drift with nymphs, here we are fishing at depth not so with wet fly by this means.
There are way more issues with flies of choice, how they are rigged and thereafter fished.

If there is any one major difference it is this. The flies are or should not be fished with a tight line scenario, they should be fished in such a way as only the current animates the flies or as close as you can get to that.
The indication of a take is seen by many ways.
If you wait for the pull of the fish you will have missed 50%
of the fish that may have had a interest to take the fly

[Davyfly]

Ok, for some reason when l post with the reply it jerks me around.

So to continue. Yes it is in many ways similar to using 3 dry flies, and that l also do at times, by the way, this can also be a deadly tactic.'
The difference is surface and subsurface water hydraulics alter how the flies are moved. For one you can see dry flies, most of the time not with subsurface, but you should know exactly were they are if not you have lost control of the drift.
What you have to know is how to read what the fly line and leader is telling you and at the end of the day experience given the nature of the water being fished, its current speed, depth and recognised current seams, they are all clues.
It is also related to what both your rod and and line hand are doing as they have to work in unison with each other and that is the hard part for many to figure out.
Here again you will after years of fishing this way pretty much know where and when a fish will likely take you.
l would add one further comment here. I am very fussy about my rod and line match if neither work together one has to go and as a rule it will be the fly line.
A fly rod l can pick up and know just by its feel that it is what l would choose, that is not the case with a line until you fish with it, casting on grass proves nothing, only that you feel comfortable with how it casts with the rod you are using, fishing with it is a very different matter believe me.
And in most cases that is less that 50ft or less for trout.
For me that line has to be smooth as silk and do every thing l wish for it to do, granted this also has a great deal to deal with ability in order for that to happen, in other words it has to be a extension of my hand kinda like painting if that is the way to explain it.
It is not a question as many FFishers to day believe, a high dollar fly rod and a high cost reel and line to match, it is a indefinable sense of feel and that is not obtained over the fly shop counter.
It is the result of fishing and making those evaluations.

Davy.

[steve z]

[quote author=alanb_ct link=topic=3461.msg26024#msg26024 date=1250292344]
You all should consider watching Davy Wotton's DVD entitled "Wet Fly Ways."
[/quote]

Ordered. $23 on Amazon.

[JUICE]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhh!

Aaron was called out. Don't look over here, I just film and edit. Get it straight Aaron!

[Davyfly]

No worry juice, Aaron is not offended. Its not so much l am calling him out, and he knows that.
He has great respect for my years at this game as you well know.
At the end of the day its all about letting our readers know what is all about.

I did forget to add this.

The typical across and downstream drift, when l make the mend upstream after the set down of the flies, l am to create a L shape from the main body of the fly line on the water to the close junction of the leader to the flies, that is the tail end of the L.
This is the way to enable a good drift so that the flies maintain a right angle to the fly line, if you allow a belly to develop from that point on it is nearly impossible to maintain this position as when you try to make a mend the odds are you will draw the flies back to to and they will then be pushed DS in a straight line.

In other words the deal is to set the angle of drift up from the get go.

One way you can learn how to perfect this is to set a rig up with 3 dry flies and do same.

DW


DW