J.C., You make mending sound easy. I have found mending the toughest part of fly fishing. I will usually either mend to hard and move the fly or not enough to do any good. It sounds easy, but I have spent more time trying to learn to manage my line than any other part of fly fishing. I love to watch people who do it effortlessly.Good article!
Norm
I think mending is one of the least understood parts of fly fishing. Having lived and guided in Montana, the spring creeks were a wonderful ‘school’. If you really watched and paid attention you could see even the tinest drag appear. I think that is where I really learned line control, because you could see the results of whatever action you took with the tip of your rod and rod hand.
More than once I’ve watched nice trout do a flat refusal on a fly which I “knew” it was going to take - and realized that in just that instant drag had cost me the fish. It can be a matter of just ONE inch of drag-free float which makes the difference.
Unfortunately mending is something you need to practice on the water. (That’s not all bad you know.) But try and devote some time to really doing it and watching the results when you aren’t trying to catch a particular fish.
Eventually, it will become natural and automatic like casting.
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
One of the great things I just realized a few weeks ago was mentioned in the article. When mending leave some slack down by your reel and allow that slack line to run out through the guides when you flip you rod to make the mend. The line will pull through your guides instead of pulling your fly and you’ll get a nice mend and more line out too for a longer drift! It makes sense and I should have thought of that on my own, but I read it in one of Joan Wulff’s books. It just clicked… finally. Thanks JC
[url=http://dryfly.argodesignstudio.com:56ffd]http://dryfly.argodesignstudio.com[/url:56ffd]
Norm,
Mending becomes automatic after a bit. One day there was some tourists watching me fish from the gallery. One of the fellows asked me why I do that with the line. I asked “Do what with the line?”.
Seems I was mending the line and not even realizing it. I watched the fly and knew what I wanted it to do, … mending up or downstream as needed.
We had another thread in december on this: [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/Forum1/HTML/012120.html:3d838]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/Forum1/HTML/012120.html[/url:3d838]
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:3d838]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:3d838]
JC,
Like Norm, I also appreciated your article…I’m sure that being a newbie to stream trout fishing, I have lost many opportunities to “connect” with fish while I attempt to get mending down pat, but one of these days, things will fall in place & I will see a great benefit as I become proficient with mending (and I WILL!).
Mike
Contrary to popular opinion in a lot of the fly shops I visit, $600.00 rods, $400.00 reels, $300.00 dollar waders, and $200.00 wading boots won’t help you to catch a single fish if you can’t present the fly and control the line. Presentation and line control are the key elements to consistent success in fly fishing, and both are under the direct control of the fly fisherman.
As a guide, the number one mistake I see being made by novice and intermediate fly fishermen is carrying more line on the water than they can control which results in drag on the fly, and missed hook sets. So, if you want to get better, shorten up the line to the point you can control the fly, and then work on techniques that will let you increase the distance. Learn how to throw a pile cast and a hook cast, learn how to mend in the air, and learn how to mend on the water.
Every time I’m on the stream I set aside time to work on both presentation and line control. I like to find a particularly nasty stretch of water, in terms of difficulty in getting a good drift, and then work on getting a good drift. The 15 or 20 minutes I spend working on technique rather than fishing pays off in terms of making me a better fisherman.
Dan S
Slow down and savor the moment; it will be over with all too quickly
Dan,
Great advice! I also spend time practicing mending, etc…I’m just “light years” behind most of you folks…but I’m determined to improve!
Mike
Great post and thanks for the tips all.
Philip
I look into… my fly box, and think about all the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: ‘Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long.’ - Allison Moir.
I wonder if he ever fished Saltwater 
I apologize if this is a really stupid question, but I am not sure what the “zone” is for a drift (say for a dry fly)? So, if I cast upstream of the target, mend, then drift through the target are, what sort of distance are we talking about for the drag-free section? Also, what portion of the drift is upstream of the target?
Sampioen, actually it’s a very good question. In most instances, the “zone” for the drag free drift is equal to a trout’s cone of vision. The closer to the surface that a trout is holding, the shorter the zone for a drag free drift becomes. There are a couple of general situations that you can be dealing with.
Situation 1; you see a trout actively rising and taking either duns or emergers. Cast 2 to 3 feet above the rising fish, mend if necessary and maintain the drift until the fly has passed over the fish.
Situation 2; you see a likely holding spot but no active fish. Again, cast about 3 feet above the spot, mend if necessary and maintain the drift until the fly has passed through the likely holding spot.
There are times when I’m just searching areas where I’ll try and get the longest drag free drift I can. This may require me to feed additional line on to the water as the fly moves below my position. This is accomplished by feeding line with my line hand as I move the rod tip left and right, parallel to the water to produce S patterns on the water. The danger here is that you will miss a strike because the fish will take and reject the fly quicker than you can set the hook.
Dan S
Slow down and savor the moment; it will be over with all too quickly
Well said Outrider; Your close up and personal advice is Priceless.
I also like to advise that the start of any mend once the line is on the water, should start with an upward motion of the rod tip, so the line is lifted to allow the mend to travel along the line above the water. I also advise a “Little by Little” approach to mending, rather than one big sideways swipe that will usually scoot the fly over the surface. Jax
I’m a much better Fly fisher when talking fishing, than when I’m Actually Fly fishing!
Thanks so much for the input. I am embarassed to say that I never thought about the range of vision from the perspective of how close to the surface the trout is lying.