Dry fly season is in full swing. Put it in the right spot. Make it look good. Use these tips to improve success.

1. A clean fly line

As a dry fly first guide, perhaps nothing matters more in my gear than a quality fly line. And among my customers who have their own gear, this is perhaps the most overlooked and neglected part of their gear. The most important task in dry fly fishing is keeping our flies dry. In fact, most of the remaining points I’ll make in this post are in some way directed at this same goal. We can’t fish a dry very effectively without it on the surface. And the first reaction most anglers have when their fly won’t float is to apply more desiccant to the fly. Sometimes that’s actually the case. But desiccants these days are very good and require infrequent application. The most common issue lies not with the fly, but with the fly line. 

Nothing shortens a nice drift quicker than a cracked, dirty, old fly line. I clean my fly lines every day. And if you show up with an old line, I’ll probably clean it twice or more in a day. When I see flies getting drowned, I find myself tracking back on the leader and line and most times I’ll see the tip of the fly line a few inches under the water. No desiccant in the world is going to save that dry fly from drowning if the fly line is sunk. 

Mucilin is a great product for cleaning lines and helping them stay afloat. I like the green one for dry fly fishing. If you’re heading out for a day of dry fly fishing, this is the way to start your day. The puck comes with an applicator pad for ease of cleaning. Simply make sure some of the silicone paste is on the pad and run the head of your fly line through it. I’ll even grease the leader with my fingers afterward for good measure. If after you’ve done this, your line begins to sink soon after, you need a new line pronto or you might as well be swinging soft hackles with it. 

2. Appropriate line diameter and length

The most common length of leader sold in fly shops is 9’. This is for good reason. Most rods are 9’ and the taper used for each terminal diameter is designed for maximum casting performance. Generally speaking, it’s safe to assume that a 9’ leader is ideal for most fly selections and tactics. I’ll go over one particular exception I employ in a minute…

Most days on the water I’m fishing a size 14-16 dry fly. And on the busy surface of the Madison, we just don’t worry too much about leader shyness. So why not use as thick a diameter as possible on a small dry? I find that thicker diameter tippets pull my small dries under quicker, and land the fly more aggressively than I like. I want the fly to land softly and not be burdened by a thick leader which has more surface area to be pulled under by currents.

To highlight this, if an angler continues to cast or mend a fly too aggressively which can sink a fly, and I can’t correct it (some are more stubborn than others in listening…), one trick I’ll employ is lengthening the leader with more tippet. This separates the fly from thicker diameter sections of the tapered leader, lessening its susceptibility to drowning by aggression. But for most days, a 9’ 4X leader is just right.

3. Rod height

You’ve hit the right spot with the fly. Now you’ve got to sell it. Make it look good. Avoid drag. It’s very easy for an angler to become hyperfocused on the bug itself and forget about everything else they're doing to help the fly stay floating. You’ve cleaned your fly line and applied desiccant to your fly. But why is it still struggling to get a long dry drift? Many anglers, when drifting a dry, give the river too much line. What I mean by that is, you’ve made a good cast, fluttering the fly to the water softly (more on this later), but then you drop your rod tip a foot off the water and suddenly you’re leaving 10-15 feet of fly line on the water. Constantly mending. Constantly tugging on the fly. The fly doesn’t like this and goes under quickly. 

Simply keeping your rod tip elevated is an easy fix that drastically improves your dry fly’s ability to float. Don’t give the choppy currents of the Madison a chance to suck under your fly line, and eventually the fly itself. Even the newest and cleanest fly line in the world can’t save that fly with too much line on the water. Eventually it’s sunk. And if you can buy your fly for even a few more seconds, that’s an eternity for fishing. I typically like to only leave a few feet of fly line on the water. The rest is elevated. Mends should be done elevated as well. Soft, quick twitches up high. You’ll find your dry fly will stay afloat much much longer by keeping your rod tip up. Generally, I like the rod to be pointed slightly above the elevation of the rod hand. It all makes sense. The goal is to keep the fly floating. Dry. We need to do the same with our fly lines. Keep them dry. The best way to do this is to not let them get wet to begin with. 

4. Distance and direction

Again, the goal is to hit the spot and make it look good. What direction to cast in and how far to send it are critically important. Nothing makes me cringe more in the rower’s seat than seeing a cast get sent 30 to 40 feet out at 9 o'clock. We leave a lot of opportunities on the field that way and it’s going to be a long day if we can’t correct it. Experienced anglers have the most trouble here. Just because you can send it 40’ doesn't mean you should. The entire reason you’re paying me pesos to fish from a drift boat is to have an unending train of targets presented right in front of you at effective distances all day. Don’t throw it all away. Because of that, less is more. I would say that 95% of the time the target I have in mind for you and that I’ve worked to set you up for is somewhere between 20-25 feet from the bow of the boat, give or take a few. It may look like the drift boat is just aimlessly floating, but every stroke I make is with a series of targets in mind. If you have 7’ feet of rod extending from the boat, and 9’ of leader to the fly (albeit with some good slack in the leader), that doesn’t leave much necessary to reach the target. Generally speaking, it’s almost never a good idea to cast more than 20 feet of fly line for dry flies on the Madison. And almost always best to cast less than that. 

This is a quick paced river. Any more line than that, moving at 2-5 mph and you’re going to miss a lot of targets trying to hit one at 30 or 40 feet. Trust me, I’m not going to miss that juicy target at 40’. We’ll get there. But in between are a couple targets you just shot over to reach that one. And if by some miracle you do hit it, managing 40’ of line moving 3 mph, and likely with a stiff wind ain’t gonna make that fly look too appealing for very long. Stay efficient. Be patient. You’re going to get one shot at that spot, wait until you’re sure it’ll stick and look good after. Keep it short and tactical. Let me do my job and deliver you to the target. Then hit the target and make it look good. Nothing is more challenging than positioning a drift boat for an angler who is in one cast using 40 feet at 12 o' clock  then the next using 10’ at 9 o'clock. I simply can’t plan a line with that. Consistency helps me with boat positioning. We all need to be on the same page.

But why not cast directly to the side at 9 or 3 o'clock? It boggles my mind how those perpendicular directions grab anglers’ attention. Take a look at all the currents on the Madison. Some are fast, some are slow, some are moderate. One thing they all have in common, though, is that they’re all headed in one direction. Downstream. The more you try and cast perpendicularly over them the more work you have cut out for you to keep that fly looking good and dry. That’s the goal remember?

So, for both anglers, the best way to eliminate or reduce those currents’ influence on your float is to cast with the currents, not against them. If on the left side, that’s generally 11 o'clock give or take 30 minutes depending on the exact situation. On the right side, it's 1 o'clock. Stay focused on the future. Forward. Your knee braces in the boat are facing that way for a reason. To make things even more perfect, ideally a reach cast is used in combination with these forward casts. Nothing makes my heart swell more than a disciplined angler at 11 or 1 o'clock with a 15 foot reach cast. Chef’s kiss. 

5. Reach casts

Once you do make your presentation forward, it’s preferable to keep your fly in that same line in the current. The currents in the Madison have a way of pushing flies to the middle of the river. This is why mending is helpful. Your fly will continue to drift in the direction you mend. However, mending sometimes pulls the fly under if we don’t have a little slack. The most ideal way to cast a fly is to perform what’s called a reach cast. Here’s a video on that cast and how to do it with the legendary Joan Wulff.

Essentially, as you cast forward, you’re turning your thumb to the side you wish to reach. This lays your line down in the most drag free position upstream of your fly. Then it’s important to elevate your rod tip and bring it back towards the fly for the drift. It’s not difficult, but does take a little practice with the timing. A worthwhile investment of 10-15 minutes in the morning practicing that before a float. 

6. Patience….

Ahh. The most difficult thing of all. I like fishing the banks as much as the next angler. They just look fishy. Lots of slow pools over there. Very appealing. But thousands of boats each year gravitate to the banks for both fishing and parking. There’s a lot of commotion going on over there. As the season settles in, I fish more middle river targets. On the Madison, those come in the form of large rocks, drop offs, shallow slow bars etc. We have a lot of big rocks on the river. And while they’re all fishy, people struggle to fish them effectively. All of them provide cover and slow currents for fish. There are 4 main targets around a large boulder mid river. Two are on the shoulders of the rock, one is the cushion at the upstream side, and the other is the long slow glassy slick downstream. This last one might be my most preferred for small dries. 

Notice that not among my four targets was right behind the rock. The one spot everyone is salivating to cast to. And the one spot that drives a dry fly guide crazy. Casting into that spot or allowing your fly line to even touch that water is a good way to ruin the entire setup. For one, we’re moving at an average of 3 mph. While your fly doesn’t necessarily need to move at the exact speed as us, the more it does match our speed the longer drift you get. That being said, when you cast to that water right behind a big boulder, it acts like velcro. Or worse, a reverse eddy moves it upstream closer to the rock. Either way, we’re moving fast and the fly isn’t and the next thing you know we’ve zoomed by your fly as it gets sucked into the boiling vortex of water behind the rock and I watch as the juicy fishy slick we were there for gets passed by. Please leave this one alone. Trust me. Some boulders have long boils some have short ones. Each slick behind a rock needs to be treated differently. What your looking for is the point at which slow currents gather and begin a downward motion. That’s the spot you’re looking to hit. This will allow your fly to move slowly downstream and cover the entire slick. 

Be patient. Generally an angler can get two of these four targets if they’re ready. If you’ve just fished a line leading up to the rock, the cushion target, and nothing ate it, ideally you need to wait a few seconds before sending it into the slick. The boat has to pass the boil. We don’t need your fly line hitting the boiling water behind the slick and sucking the fly under. So, the best way to handle this is finish the cushion target and then pick up and false cast once or twice to buy yourself some time to let the boil pass, then throw it to the slick. Forward, remember?

7. Less casting is more

Casting is super fun. I agree. Casting lots of line is also very fun. But when you’re in the boat, you’re there to fish, not cast for fun. We’ve talked about shortening up your cast, but it’s also appropriate to minimize how much you cast. Each false cast you make lets maybe 5-10’ of water pass. That adds up over a day. Most times a simple pick up and lay down is all that’s needed except on big boulders as mentioned above or if we need to dry the fly a little. You simply miss fewer opportunities with minimal false casting. 

8. Flutter the fly

Slack in fly fishing is usually evil. Slack is what’s responsible for as many misses on hook sets as anything else. However, in dry fly fishing, a little slack is very helpful for a nice drift. But not just during the drift. A little slack is helpful on the delivery as well. Instead of focusing on hitting a target directly, I encourage anglers to flutter the fly to the target. That’s been a helpful description of how and where to stop the rod tip in order to allow the dry fly, often a dainty little thing, to parachute softly to the water. Those laser beam casts we use during salmonfly season are no use with a size 16 mayfly. If you see your line or fly make a small splash on the water, you just shortened the lifespan of your drift by a few seconds. That splash soaks the dry just enough to sink it faster. We want to deliver that fly as dry as possible. Your rod tip should stop high enough and abrupt enough to send a small shockwave to the fly, which then forces the fly to flutter back briefly and fall delicately to the target.

9. Barbless

The last tip is to crimp your barbs. Small dry flies are delicate ties. And crimping your barb, in addition to being easier on fish with quicker handling times, allows you to remove the hook without damaging or altering materials on the fly. A small barbed mayfly inside the mouth of a trout has a small percentage chance of ever floating the same again if you need hemostats to remove it. Save yourself some dollars, help a fish, and debarb those dry flies.