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Is your fly behaving properly?
The best dry-fly fisher ensures his fly behaves just like the natural, says Malcolm Greenhalgh.
In the April issue Malcolm Greenhalgh began a fascinating and comprehensive monthly series discussing why 5% of fishers caught 95% of the fish. In this final instalment, he explains with diagrams how dry-fly fishing doesn't always mean casting a straight line upstream.
In the last three issues of Fly-Fishing & Fly-Tying I have attempted to analyse the reason – or reasons – why about 95% of trout and grayling caught on a dry fly are caught by about 5% of fly-fishers. It is clear that the 95% of fly-fishers who do not catch their fair share are not all novices; I have known novices who became accomplished catchers of trout from the start, and I know some who have fly fished for many years and who catch relatively few fish.
What seems pretty certain is that the great fly fishers are highly observant and notice things that others do not notice (April issue). They are also accomplished presenters of the dry fly; they have a delicacy in the cast and use the finest of leaders so that they do not scare the fish (May issue). And they think carefully about the dry, or floating, fly that they tie to the end of their leaders; it’s not simply a matter of pulling any old fly out of a fly-box crammed with a myriad of patterns.
For the real catchers of fish on the dry fly, hackle-less dries, parachute dries and emergers are of paramount importance, and they are prepared to use a much wider range of fly sizes than the less successful (June issue). Of course, we all like tying new patterns and filling fly boxes with them, and that is probably one reason why you are reading this magazine, but the great fish catchers will have their favourite flies in which they have great confidence.
 When I set out to discuss the issue of why a few catch a lot and many catch relatively little on dry fly, I thought I could accomplish it in three articles, and I said so in the April issue. I was wrong; for the more I have thought on why some people catch a lot and others don’t (and why we all have at least the occasional bad day) the more points came to mind. Hence this final part of the discussion: the great fish-catcher makes sure that the dry fly behaves just like the natural fly as it sits on the lake surface or drifts down the stream. Those who catch few fish, from my experience, do not.
Full article in the July 2007 issue of Fly Fishing & Fly Tying. Read also the April, May and June issues for Malcolm's thoughts on observation, presentation, and fly selection. |
