Well, I Read That...........!

On a recent trip I was casting a dry fly across and a little up letting it drift using some mends to maintain a proper drift but the fish were taking the fly at the end of the drift. So what, I'm hooking up on almost every cast and having a ball. The new acquaintance I was fishing with asked me "Why do you fish downstream? I've read that you fish a dry fly upstream!".
He was so tuned into what he had read that he failed to see that I was catching fish and he was not!
"The 'BOOK' says to do it this way and the 'BOOK' must be right!!
Books are a good starting point but observation and experience are the best teachers. ;)

I suppose it also make a difference which BOOK. If he'd read Leonard Wright's Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect (for example) he might have had a different opinion.

You're right; books are a starting point, but are no substitute for actual experience.

Yep, OJT (On The Job Training) is the best teacher. This early spring I was casting up river on the Clark Fork, fishing a seam, letting it drift past me and down a long way into a foam pocket and no hits, but when I starting a slow strip on my fly to bring it back to me I caught a fish. I did it again and caught another on the strip so I started casting just to drift into the foam (foam is home) and would start stripping my fly and get at least a hit every time if not a fish. You just never know, but if it works at the time, do it.

Larry ---sagefisher---

I've fished drys both ways ... come to think of it, wets & nymphs, too! All depends on circumstances and the lay of the land ... (eh, stream).

Now I like to fish streamers caddy-woppis, i.e., across and down stream, let the current take it down along the bank and when the slack runs out it tracks from the side to center stream. Hey, it works for me!

MY original fly fishing mentor was a die in the wool dry fly fisherman. Taught me very much. However, I've caught many more fish subsurface (I can just see him turning in his grave!) ~