Category: Fly Fishing Basics

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“Tight loops” are words that have been used far too often, especially if you want to apply them to fishing the streams of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “Loose loops” would much better describe the cast you need to make in the park. The loop made during a roll cast is not exactly tight, just for example. If you want some words that describe the type of cast you need to make most of the time, “crooked, loose loops” may be the best ones.  Try placing a small target, something the size of a tennis ball, in your swimming pool, pond or yard. Make sure you have the leader and tippet on the line. Back off twenty-five feet. Now remember that if you are using a 9 foot long rod and a 9 foot long leader, 18 feet are taken when you finish the cast leaving only 7 feet of fly line. Now with a minimum number of false cast, none of which goes over the target, see how close the end of your tippet comes on your “first” cast. Remember, the second, third, etc cast that lands in the same spot has fewer and fewer chances of catching a trout. If your “first cast” that lands misses the target by over 6 inches, you need to work on your casting. When you are able to cast within 6 inches of the target every cast with no false cast over it and only a minimum of false cast otherwise, you are ready for step two. The step two cast should land your fly line and the bulk of your leader two or three feet to the right (or left) of the target and place the end of the tippet (or fake fly if your use one) within 6 inches of the target. You do this by making a  reach cast. In case you don’t know, a reach cast is simply a cast where you reach to the right of left of your intended target after the fly line is in progress unrolling on the forward cast. You do this immediately after you stop the acceleration of the forward cast while the fly line is still in the air before it hits the water or grass. When you are making an upstream cast, the idea is to allow the line and bulk of your leader to land as far possible to the right or left of the target so that the fly passes over a fish without it seeing the line or leader. The fly should drift downstream the first few feet at least a couple of feet left or right parallel with your fly line. You probably started trying to reach right or left during the cast without realizing what you were doing. This reaction comes natural if you want your fly to drift over an area left or right of the line. I was able to make a decent reach cast long before I knew what the name of the cast was.There is another similar cast called the curve cast I will discuss later. For now, if you can’t, you should be able to make a 25 to 35 foot reach cast (with no false cast over the target) that lands the fly within 6 inches of the intended target on the first cast that hits the water. No, I can’t do it all the time but I can often enough to catch a lot of trout. Also, remember that you need to be able to do this under trees with limbs hanging over the water. In other words, making sidearm cast left and right of your body as well as overhand cast.

The tip of the rod is what controls the fly line. The line just follows the rod tip so to speak. Ideally, when the line clears the water and becomes airborne, you should accelerate the back cast and then abruptly stop. This should provide enough energy to straighten the line out behind you. Just as the loop unrolls and the line becomes straight, you should accelerate the forward cast. This should provide enough energy to unroll and straighten the line out in front of you. Again, abruptly stop for a split second. In a slow motion you should allow the straightened line to fall to the water.

When you first begin the back cast by picking the line up off the water, the drag and weight of the line should bend or “load” the rod. When you begin your forward cast, the acceleration and weight of the line will again “load” or bend the rod in the opposite direction. When a rod is “loaded”, it becomes a spring. It is this loading and unloading of the rod that assist in casting the line. If it wasn’t for this fact, you may just as well use a very stiff rod. You could use a broom stick to cast the fly line and to some degree, the stick would work. If fact, you don’t have to use a rod at all to cast a fly line. You can do it with your arms. The fly rod just makes it easier to cast farther and more accurately. Again, the it is the loading and unloading of a fly rod that sends the line gracefully unrolling a good distance across the water.  These are just basic principles of casting that many of you have probably heard many times.

Often, when we are making short cast, we fail to load the rod. That turns the cast into a sloppy presentation that spooks the fish when the line is picked up on the back cast as well as spooks the fish when the line hits the water on the forward cast. Even when you’re making a short cast, you still need to go through the procedures necessary to load and unload the rod. If done properly, when you make a relatively long cast, the loops formed on the back cast and the forward cast is in a relatively small plane. This narrow loop is called a “tight loop”. If you allow the rod to come back too far on the back cast, or go too far forward on the forward cast before stopping it abruptly, the loop formed will be in a wide plane or open loop. Open loops are not good for making long cast. When you are making long cast, you want to cast tight loops. One key objective in keeping a tight loop is to bend the rod progressively through the casting strokes in order to keep the tip of the rod traveling straight. Fast tip rods help accomplish this. If the rod tip travels in a big, wide arc, you will have a big, wide loop. You will be able to cast farther when you are forming tight loops.

Anytime you cast and catch a fish you can rightfully say that you made a
“Perfect Cast”. The cast accomplished its one and only purpose. You cast the fly
in such a manner that you were able to present it well enough to fool the fish into
thinking it was the real thing.

Unless you are competing in a long distance casting competition, the one and
only purpose of the cast is to get the fly into the right position for you to make a
perfect presentation. The “Perfect Presentation” is what makes the fly drift along
the surface, mid-depth or near the bottom as it were a real adult fly, nymph, larva
or pupa. Any presentation that catches a fish is a “Perfect Presentation”.  If you
are trying to accomplish anything else when you make a cast, you are not fishing,
you are engaged in some other function that you have falsely associated with
casting a fly.

Some self proclaimed fly fishing experts (and some that the rapidly fading fly-
fishing publications have called experts) would like for you to think that casting a
fly is a very complex and difficult to learn skill. It is not. If you are new to fly fishing
and you start out with the preconception that learning to cast is going to be a
long, drawn out complex process, then you are fooling yourself.  Learning to cast
is fairly simple.

To begin, when anyone makes a long cast, they must straighten out the fly line.
You can’t make a long cast with slack fly line that ends up in any other shape.
You must straighten the line out. With only a few exceptions, when you make a
cast to cast a trout and you straighten out your fly line, you have just make your
first mistake. This is because unless you are fishing a streamer, or you have
made the cast directly up stream, or directly against the current coming
downstream, you will get instant drag. If you do cast directly upstream, you have
just cast your line or leader, one of the other, over the fish you intend to catch. If
you straighten your line, leader and tippet and cast it at even a slight angle from
directly against the current, you will begin to get drag from the time the fly lands
on the water.

The point I am trying to make is that you should cast your fly at an angle to the
current, or up and across the current, and that you should not straighten out you
fly line, leader and tippet. The idea is to have some slack in the leader and tippet
when it hits the water. This will allow the fly to drift drag free and give you the time
you need to mend the line to continue a drag free drift. In other words, the
objective is not to make a long cast, but to make an accurate cast with some  
slack in your line.

There are several types of cast that accomplish this. The pile, reach and curve
cast are some of the names of the type of cast I’m referring too, but I don’t want
to get off on technical terms or names any more than is necessary. You want to
make a cast that lands the fly on the water in such a manner as to not create
instant drag. That’s the number one basic requirement of the cast irrespective of
whether you are fishing a nymph or dry fly.

Attempting to make a long cast is a mistake in most all the types of cast you will
need to make fishing small streams. That means attempting to make a long cast
is the wrong approach in most all cases.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

Few anglers would question the fact that dry fly fishing is the most enjoyable form of fly fishing. There’s no doubt that the visual aspect of dry fly fishing is what makes it so popular. Your fishing a fly you can see versus a fly you cannot always see. In many cases you can see the fish take a dry fly. When that is compared to fishing flies you can’t see, to fish you can’t see, it is obvious which method is the most popular one. Although the dry fly usually refers to trout flies, they are also used to classify steelhead flies, striped bass flies, some saltwater flies, panfish flies and other types of flies made for catching fish. To make it simple, fishing dry flies is fun. In other words, a dry flies are flies that float on the surface of the water.

Dry flies are usually very light and made of materials that resist soaking up water. Materials from birds and animals such as deer and elk hair, CDC (Cul de Canard), rooster and hen feathers, and hundreds of other types of natural materials. They also use some man-made materials such as plastics, and of course, all dry flies have a metal hook in them. In fact, hooks made for dry flies are classified as dry fly hooks and are generally lighter than other types of hooks.

Keeping the dry fly dry by manually drying it is important. I like to use a soft cotton cloth but many other types of materials will work. You can also dry a dry fly by false casting it in the air several times. Just don’t do it over an area you intend to fish.

Most dry flies require floatants to help the material they are made of resist soaking up water and sinking down into the surface skim. These floatants come in liquid and powered forms. Those that use CDC have to be threaded differently with respect to adding floatant. CDC floats naturally without added floatant but specific floatants for it have been developed.

Dry flies can imitate mayflies, adult stoneflies, adult caddisflies, adult midges, terrestrial insects that get into the water, frogs, rats, and many other types of fish food. Probably the most used dry fly this day and time is the Parachute Adams. They are sold by just about every fly shop in the World and by Perfect Fly. We don’t promote them for wild trout streams over our specific mayfly patterns but we do offer them at a low price for those anglers than insist on using them. All of our Perfect Fly mayfly dun patterns use the parachute style of hackle. That is what made the Parachute Adams an effective trout fly. It imitates the legs of a mayfly dun much better than vertically wound hackle.

The single biggest problem in fishing a dry fly is getting a drag-free drift. This is especially true in pocket water type trout streams with conflicting currents. The different currents tends to grab the fly line and drag the fly faster than the speed of the water the fly may be drifting in. This can spook trout rather than attract them.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

All fishing flies get wet, that is unless they land in a tree when they are cast. Well, on second thought,
many wet flies never do actually get wet because they stay in the fly angler’s fly box and are never used. Many of the older, original wet flies end up as a collectors item. It is a fact that wet fly fishing isn’t as popular as it once was. It was one of the very first types of trout flies. Some of the old timers and some anglers that have recently been introduced to the wet fly, think they are the most effective type of trout flies.

Trout are primarily feed below the surface of the water but even so, anglers generally prefer the dry fly.
When they do fish below the surface, most anglers use nymphs. The wet fly in several different forms is the basis for fly-fishing, as it is known today. Anglers from past years relied heavily on the wet fly as their primary method of fly fishing for trout. Today it is used very little but it is becoming more and more popular.

Some may think fishing the wet fly is a simple method. Quite the opposite of that, it is as involved as most any other type of fly fishing for trout. I have had anglers ask me, what the advantage of a wet fly is over a nymph. These same anglers rarely know the difference in a nymph and a pupae because they lack a basic understanding of aquatic insects. The wet fly imitates a caddisfly pupa accenting to the surface very well. Nymphs are found on the bottom unless they are emerging to hatch on the surface of the water. It could be said that wet flies are effective in imitating emerging mayflies, but I don’t think that’s an advantage over fishing a mayfly emerger fly, especially if it is a specific imitation of the hatching mayfly.

Fishing wet flies is usually done in a searching manner, without any specific place in mind. Of course, it is far more effective if presented in areas that have a concentration of trout. Many fish a wet fly the same way they swing streamers or on the swing. Swinging the wet fly allows you to cover a lot of water fast. By taken a step or two downstream on each presentation, you can cover an area of riffles or a large pool fairly easy.

Wet flies are also used effectively with the Czech method of fly fishing. Sometimes two, even three, wet flies are fished using this method. I think wet flies is better than nymphs when using the Czech method. This method works best in fast riffles and runs.

The Japanese used the Tenkara method of fly fishing using wet flies hundreds of years ago. It is still an
effective method of fishing today that’s gaining in popularity.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

A banker once ask me what I did for a living. I replied, “I sell flies”. He then asked, “who in the World is
buying flies”. I continued to explain that I didn’t sell house flies, rather fishing flies. From that time on, I
have always tried to add the word “fishing” to flies, or trout flies, flies you fish with, or something to
indicate the difference in house flies and fishing flies.

Flies to catch fish on have been around for hundreds of years, if not longer. Fishing flies are artificial
flies that are used in fly fishing. Fly fishing is a method of fishing. There is a huge difference in fly
fishing flies and other artificial fishing lures and baits. The main difference is flies used for fly fishing
are very light and in many cases, almost weightless. They are cast using a fly rod. Unlike conventional
fishing tackle, fly rods work by casting the weight of the fly line, not the fly.

Conventional fishing tackle rods, such as spinning and bait casting rods, depend on the weight of the
fishing lure or bait to propel the cast. You cannot cast a hook size 16 dry fly on a casting or spinning
rod.

Although fishing flies imitate what their name indicates, they also imitate other types of food fish eat
other than flies. They can imitate crustaceans, baitfish, egg flies, worm flies and many other types of
trout flies. Fishing flies can imitate frogs, fish, shrimp, crabs, mice, and just about any thing fish eat in
fresh and saltwater.

At Perfect Fly, we tie and sell trout flies, smallmouth bass flies, largemouth bass flies, bream flies,
panfish flies, bluegill flies, muskie flies, northern pike flies, salmon flies, steelhead flies, inshore
saltwater flies, offshore saltwater flies, saltwater flats flies, redfish flies, permit flies, bonefish flies, and a lot more different types of fishing flies.

Flies can also be designated as wet flies and dry flies. Sometimes they are classified as nymphs and
dry flies. They can also be classified as adult flies, larvae flies, pupae flies, egg flies, attractor flies,
streamers, and as many other types of flies.

Flies can also be classified as specific imitations of food fish eat and generic flies that imitate a variety
of different foods fish eat. They can also be classified as realistic imitations, semi-realistic imitations,
impressionistic flies, and by many other names.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

I love to fly fish and have done so for many years. Recently, I found out that I
had a herniated disc which made slipping or falling extremely dangerous. Always
before, I just took off into the stream and took falling as part of the day, but no
more. I was then introduced to the best and safest way to move in the water
without falling. I got introduced to the collapsible wading staff.
  A collapsible wading staff is the best and safest way to get around in your
favorite stream. It will act as a third leg to help you maintain your balance. The
wading staff also allows you to check water depth and to check the condition of the
bottom where you are wading. The collapsible feature allows you to carry the
wading staff easier without it being in the way. It also allows you to have access to
the wading staff quickly.
  The best collapsible wading staff that I have found is the Perfect Fly Deluxe
Collapsible Wading Staff. I have found this collapsible wading staff to be very
strong, lightweight, and extremely packable. There’s never any reason to not take
it with you. It has an aluminum staff that packs down to 15 inches to easily stow in
your pack until it’s needed. Expands to 54″ to support the largest anglers, which is
a big plus to me as I am 6’7” and weigh 230#. It has a grip made for the hand and
a nylon wrist sling. It includes neoprene storage case, and is price competitive.
  All in all, a collapsible wading staff makes a safe and necessary addition to any
fly fisherman’s list of accessories.

Copyright James Marsh 2014

Many dedicated trout fishermen load up their gear to go fishing and look forward
to a great day in their favorite stream. They grab their rod, flies, waders and chest
pack, but don’t think about basic necessities such as the wading staff.
 
    Wading staffs are almost as important a piece of gear as your rod. Most
streams have bottoms that are uneven or rocky and footing can be treacherous at
times. The Wading staff can help to prevent falls, check water depth, and check
the texture of the bottom you are wading. The Wading staff can act as a third leg
and help you to maintain your balance in fast moving water or on slick or rocky
bottoms.
   
   There are numerous kinds of wading staffs, but the best ones seem to be the
ones that are collapsible and go in a pouch on your belt rather than the rigid ones
that are hard to handle and seem to get in the way as you are trying to fish.
   
    We think the best one for the money on the market is The “Perfect Fly” Deluxe
Wading Staff. It is very strong, lightweight, and extremely packable. There’s never
any reason to not take it with you. It has an aluminum staff that packs down to 15
inches to easily stow in your pack until it’s needed. It expands to 54″ to support the
largest anglers. It has a grip made for the hand and a nylon wrist sling. It includes
neoprene storage case. It is also competitively priced and makes an excellent
addition to your fly fishing gear.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

Landing nets not only make it easier for you to land a fish, they also make it easier on the
fish. Most fish, especially those ultra tired from being taken on very light tippets, need all
the help they can get to survive unaffected. Keeping them in the water while you are
releasing the hook is one key to good release technique. Choose the smallest one you
can get away with, landing net that is, not fish.

Copyright James Marsh 2013