teach me please

[miamisson]

to whomever,

have spent most of my life fishing upstream whenever possible (on the assumption fish looking upstream) as part of my "stealth" package. ignoring back eddys, when is a downstream approach better?

please note; when i asked this on my local board, all i got was "when the water conditions dictate it" well, that is what i am asking. what water conditions lend themselves to an downstream approach?

up front thanks.

[DShock]

miamisson,
Casting to the opposite shore or wading out in shallow water and casting back into the shore you came from, would be ways of fishing downstream. Don't take chances wading in high fast water. If you can wade or walk upstream, then cast upstream.
My 02. cents.
Doug

[Gringo]

I'm like you and always fishing upstream in the belief that I am behind the fish. However more and more people (and ones who really know what they are doing) seem now to be going for the downstream approach with nymphing. I do not really know the specific rationales but can say that it is done in all water conditions and not a selection of circumstances. Something tells me it is a variation on Czek nymphing??? I noticed a guy recently doing this in a very fast flowing stream, and he was doing better than I.

[Joe Valencic]

I'm like you and always fishing upstream in the belief that I am behind the fish. However more and more people (and ones who really know what they are doing) seem now to be going for the downstream approach with nymphing. I do not really know the specific rationales but can say that it is done in all water conditions and not a selection of circumstances. Something tells me it is a variation on Czek nymphing??? I noticed a guy recently doing this in a very fast flowing stream, and he was doing better than I.

The fast water was probably the key, and perhaps it was off color as well, reducing the fish's ability to see the angler. Czech Nymphing is a very effective, close-in technique, but if the fish see you, then all bets are off. At least that's the way it has been when I have applied this technique.

[onemorecast]

The first fish I ever caught on a fly rod was on a size 18 BWO drifted downstream for a long distance. It was my first week with the fly rod and I didn't know any better. All I knew was I had to have a natural drift - so I figured I'd cast a few feet upstream and let it drift as I stripped out line. The darn thing drifted perfectly and got hit by a bow in a riffle about 50 feet downstream. I guess I either got lucky with the current or the god of beginner flyfishers was smiling on me.

[Wild One]

I don't think that water conditions dictate fishing downstream as opposed to upstream at all. To me, what dictates my approach is the fly(s) I'm using, the fish (are they sipping emergers in the film or just below the surface?), the velocity and direction of the wind and sometimes just my mood. I've found that you can catch fish on almost any moving water wheather you're fishing dries and nymphs upstream on a dead drift or swinging wets, streamers or nymphs downstream (or even skipping a hopper or caddis on a swing). For me, water conditions don't fully determine how I fish.

[Big Bad Wulff]

"Downstream" method is better when the fish are looking for bait fish for a meal.
Cast a wooley bugger or anything else that can imitate a small fish and leave it "motionless" downstream from you and see what happens. Trout especially will hit a wooley bugger 'just treading water' or 'swimming upstream'.
I catch many trout this way..............many!
Also swinging or raising a nymph or soft hackle downstream from you will get a hit too.

[dudley]

Besides the downstream dry presentation that Ray mentioned, I can think of a few other instances where I would fish down.

1. Where there's obstructions to casting like in tight cover or perhaps under a sweeper or an undercut bank,or a root ball or some other in-stream structure. In these cases you would just wiggle line out of the rod tip a bit at a time covering different area of the cover. This is a realistic presentation with a streamer but also works great with a nymph or wet.
2. During a blanket caddis hatch. Many people would fish a caddis dry with an up-stream presentation, but most likely the fish will be keyed into emergers instead. A quartered-down cast with some mends to get the fly down, accompanied with a "Leisenring Lift" at the end of the drift is the way to go. If you can target rising fish, all the better.
3. "Swimming" a fly through pocketwater
4. (Please don't take this one as advice ) When I'm fishing lazy. When you're fishing down stream you can you can feel the current bow the line, you can mend by feel, you can feel the strikes. You can be looking at those bluebirds or the flowers... the mountains,the trees. Maybe not the most efficient way to fish but it's something I do fairly regularly. After all, there's more to it than just the fish..

[ohiotuber]

It wasn't until I got on FAOL that I learned better. I had also read & heard that you should ALWAYS wade & fish upstream. That's what I did for years....my fly fishing success has improved greatly due to the knowledge & advice available here. I still have a long way to go but, were it not for FAOL, I would STILL be in the "dark ages" of fly fishing.
Mike