May is almost upon us which for some is only but the start of what we hope to be a bountiful season, for others you're already well heeled and in the midst of some wonderful dry fly fishing, it's from here on in I hope we all start to observe the gathering of the masses... 'fly life'.
Given the choice I'm sure every angler to a (wo)man would choose dry fly fishing above all other methods, crikey! even I as a passionate nymph angler can't resist it in favourable conditions. To this end I offer you a dry fly presentation cast that is best deployed on simple non-complex currents. It is but one of many that puts all important slack in the fly line between you and your intended target.
The animated image sequences below show roughly how the cast will look. You'll have to forgive the stop-start characteristic of the sequence as I've removed some frames to improve download time.
Objective?
- Having established a probable lie, observe the current(s) and anticipate the likely drift of your fly
- Position yourself so as to be able to deploy the cast and fish the lie effectively
- Decide upon which slack line cast best facilitates the anticipated drift
- Apply the cast in such a way so as to provide just enough slack to fish your fly correctly, but, maintain so little of it that if your target fish takes, tension in the line can be brought to bare quickly.
Why do I like this cast?
It allows me to put slack (all be it minimal) relatively evenly throughout the length of the fly line without having to make any out of plane movement of the rod tip with which to apply it, the casting plane remains constant throughout thus enabling me to maintain my target line accuracy. I'm not shocking, bouncing or wiggling the rod tip to initiate slack either, and so keeping the cast, turnover and fly presentation clean.
Where do I use this cast?
With an upstream approach I'll use it across what I call non-complex currents where a straight line cast is impacted upon almost immediately which could otherwise compromise a flies drift. Should your flies time in a particular current be the measure of either success or failure, then a well placed slack line cast to maintain a drift is perhaps all it'll take to give you that extra second or two with which to make the difference.
Having read the current I'm happy from this position below to cover the angles in this run effectively without feeling the need to apply any more slack than has already been achieved in the example.
How do I execute this cast?
Stance... a closed one is my preference (left hand - left foot forward), for me it makes for good accuracy and more than adequate movement to complete the cast.
- Apply an overhead cast in a near vertical plane.
- Having stopped abruptly on your forward cast to traject your fly line, immediately lower your upper arm and forearm (Imagine - having touched your ear, you then put your hand in your pocket).
- Timing - Conclude the arm movement and pull back just prior to line and leader touching down.
I focus on keeping the rod tip slightly lower than the trajected fly line as it continues to unroll. As I lower and draw back on the rod, the line briefly stalls and descends falling back slightly to form shallow waves (slack) on the surface.
These are variations (I shan't say faults) and although perhaps unintentional, are not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to slack line placement... there's no harm in getting good at these.
Aside to the above and in keeping with the delivery being within a consistent plane, you can and without drawing the rod back apply a 'snappy' type haul with your line hand instead, it's more of a shock type application but it can afford you similar and sometimes accentuated slack.
Fishing position - It's probably obvious but I thought I'd mention it based on how the above image sequences actually end. I wouldn't remain in the 'drawn back' position to fish. Once the cast is complete I'd return the rod to a more forward position having immediately picked up any slack in the line hand that would otherwise form directly below the tip.
Shooting line -You can should you wish as with pretty much all casts, you'll just need to make timing adjustments when lowering the rod tip. Keeping casts moderately short, I choose not to shoot line but merely aerialise to a distance required plus a few feet or so to compensate for the shortened delivery due to the draw back motion of the arm and the actual slack in the line.
Limitations - The nature and application of this cast is such that the size of the wiggles/waves are although quite consistent, they are shallow. Have no doubt however that this cast delivers in the right conditions, many of which make for good dry fly fishing.
I find the movements required to perform this cast also limit it to a more near vertical plane... at least relative to my body parts any how!, there are others you can learn that are better suited to more horizontal planes.
Other slack line cast variations - The snake (spiral), tip bounce and wiggle cast are but a few alternative methods that can deliver a far higher degree of variation in the size of slack line wiggles/waves than this particular example, some requiring additional rod movements or over powered stops, or both. We'll look at these in future issues.
For reference - below is what I would refer to as a complex and non-complex current. This cast would not be my choice on complex currents as it provides no where near enough slack to deal with the turbulence. Now there's a question in itself, would you actually want slack line in this particular complex current or would very little or no fly line be a better option?... I feel another article coming on to answer this one!
Finally and most important!... Your Dry Fly Leader - The idea of putting slack in the fly line is to bide you time, there's no point in doing that however if your fly is connected to a 'barbed wire' type leader or at best a poorly tapered/constructed alternative. With the occasional exception the most important place to have slack is in your leader, especially the tippet above all else, slack in the flyline is secondary to it... to have both! - now your cookin'.
Jim is our ESF in house fly casting contributor and AAPGAI Master level instructor teaching full time in the Cotswold, Wiltshire & Hampshire area... visit his website.