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I am seeking help on this technique,I have been fishing alot of wet flys lately with a WF fly line, and it seems when I drift my fly the line bends at the middle and it pulls the fly down stream creating a ugly drift. Am i doing it wrong like having to much slack in the line, or is my fly to heavy in the slower current? any help is apreaciated thank you
[This message has been edited by PaGuy (edited 21 June 2006).]
Hi,
If your line is forming a belly during the drift, then you need to mend the line back "up stream" to prevent the fly pulling through the current (not always a bad thing, but it sounds like you want to prevent it).
So, cast your fly just upstream of you. Once the fly is straight across from you, lift the rod and place the line up stream. If you still have line in your hand, then you can "flick" this up stream as the fly drifts down the current. This will extend the drift as you let our more line above the fly.
Does that sound like it might solve the problem?
- Jeff
that was quick, make sense to me, should solve my problem, thank you
[This message has been edited by PaGuy (edited 21 June 2006).]
That was probably the most important thing I learned the frist time I fished with a guide on the White River. How to mend. It is ssooo very important to getting a decent drift in the vicinity of the fish you are trying to catch or hole you are trying to fish. What I thought was mending was not even close. I was told, "If you are going to mend the line...MEND IT!!". When I got onto it things started coming together.
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These are the idle thoughts that posses a man's mind when he's not able to fish.
Another thing that might help is to cast more downstream as well as across. A rough rule is that the faster the current the more downstream the cast should be while planning the swing to occur in the best holding location such as a seam or other current break.
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all leaders tangle; mine are just better at it than most. Jim
when you catch on,,, you may mend several times (little half roll-casts) on each cast. Subtle little flips of the rod tip, flipping small coils and half-coils of line (usually) upstream, sometimes flat out, even down on the rare occasion. Call it mending,,, call it 'controling' the line after the presentation.
I've found that stretching the tip of my rod a ways upstream right at the end of the cast can help considerably, and make for less mending. It's not a pretty technique and wouldn't be good for casting dries, but wet flies don't have to be pretty.
I also like to keep my rod tip up real high and keep a decent tension on the line during the drift to keep as much of the line up out of the water as possible. Don't be lazy about stripping in excess line during the drift, and you can start letting it back out on the downward swing. This reduces drag and makes mending easier since less line has to come up off the water.