Author Topic: Lesons learned about dry fly fishing (Read 500 times)

Jay Looper · « **on:** May 16, 2009, 03:01:42 PM »

I have shared a lot of my past struggles with all of you, but this spring, I have progressed in a lot of facets of fishing. I am now on a dry fly kick and just experienced a good morning, especially for this little local stream that I seem to be the only guy in the area still fishing. Ever since Dejon took me out 2 years ago, he has always been there to give me advice. He was a guide, then a mentor and now is a good friend. So besides my posts on the forum, I'll send him PM's when I have specific questions about specific spots that I am more comfortable speaking to him than posting in a forum. Today, I shared with him 3 things that I worked on in my dry fly game that he asked that I share with all of you in a thread. So I am just going to copy and paste what I wrote him this morning and here it is....

"4 for 4 on size 14 and 16 elk hair caddis by 6:30 this morning at Glen Park. I just got an iTouch at work and have been listening to podcasts on my long journeys to and from work. I listened to all 12 episodes of flyandfloatfihing.com and now I am on to the Orvis podcasts with Tom Rosenbauer.
I don't think the other night I was missing as many strikes as I originally thought. In retrospect, I probably should have went to one size smaller fly.
My problem with casting is that I had 4 feet of 5x tippet between the leader and the fly - which is too much for a beginner. I also focused on starting and ending my cast at hip heighth.
These 3 things I learned on the way home yesterday led to me being 4 for 4. I caught more trout by 6:30 this morning than I did in my first 2 years of steelheading
I love dry fly fishing. Steelheading to me is about the float going down with that intial tug and then the fight that ensues. The excitement of dry fly fishing is knowing where the fish are, being pretty sure you have the right fly, and just putting it in the right zone to tempt them - its a lot like turkey hunting!"

Well, hope these 3 tips help some of you - they certainly helped me
AA

Jay Looper · « **Reply #1 on:** May 16, 2009, 08:51:08 PM »

I feel like a loser replying to my own post, but I need to tell someone and my wife is sleeping. I just went 14 for 15 on dry fly caddis patterns from 8:00 to 9:10 at the spot I was referring to in my first post of this thread. They were all stockies, but still a great and well-deserved evening for me on the water. Dry fly fishing is awesome!!
AA