The Upstream Dry Fly: One Fish, One Cast

A trout rising steadily in May has told you almost everything: where it lies, what level it is feeding at, and how often it is prepared to tilt up. What it has not told you is how much it will tolerate. The upstream dry fly is the art of answering that question gently, with a fly that arrives from the direction the fish expects its food and behaves like something that has no line attached to it.

Where to stand

Come from below. A trout faces the current, so the water directly behind it is the one place it cannot watch. Do not stand straight downstream, though, because then the fly line itself must fall over the fish’s head to put the fly in front of it. Take a position below and a rod length or two to one side, so that only the tippet and the fly travel down the fish’s lane and the thick line lands in the water beside it. Seven to nine metres is a comfortable range. Closer is better than longer if the bank and the light allow, because a short line is easier to control and quicker to lift.

Before you cast, watch three or four rises. Count the seconds between them. Note the exact spot, then remember that the fish is not there: a trout drifts back as it rises, so its lie is usually a little upstream of the ring.

Putting the fly down

Aim to land the fly 60–90 cm above the rise. Less than that and it drops inside the fish’s window with a plop; much more and the current has time to take hold of the leader before the fly arrives. In very smooth, slow water stretch the lead to a metre or more. In a broken riffle 40 cm is enough, because the fish has less time to look and you have less time before drag sets in.

The leader does the quiet work. Nine feet is the minimum; twelve is better on flat water. A sound formula is 60 per cent stiff butt, 20 per cent taper and 20 per cent tippet, finishing at 5X (0.15 mm) for flies in sizes 14–16 and 6X (0.13 mm) for size 18 and smaller. If a nine-foot leader is turning over too hard, do not buy another: add 60 cm of tippet. The longer, limper end falls in loose curves, and those curves are what you want.

Drag, and how to defeat it

Drag is the fly moving at any speed other than that of the water it sits on. It happens because the line lies across currents of different pace, and the faster one pulls a belly that tows the fly. Sometimes it shows as a wake. More often it is a slight skid no wider than a matchstick, invisible to you at nine metres and perfectly plain to the trout. A fish that rises to your fly and turns away at the last instant has usually seen drag, not the wrong pattern.

• Slack-line cast. Stop the rod high and let the line fall rather than driving it flat. It lands in gentle waves that the current must straighten before it can pull on the fly.
• Reach cast. After the stop, while the line is still in the air, lean the rod upstream. The line lands angled above the fly and buys two or three extra seconds.
• Wiggle cast. Shake the rod tip from side to side as the line unrolls. The snaking loops work well when you must cast across a fast tongue to slower water.
• Longer tippet. The simplest cure of all. A metre or more of 6X collapses in a small heap, and the fly drifts free until the heap is used up.

A fly that drifts true for one metre is worth more than one that lands perfectly and then skids.

The rise and the pause

When the fly vanishes, wait. The oldest advice on the chalk streams is to say a short phrase before lifting, and it holds because a trout takes on the way up and needs to turn down before the hook can find a hold. A small fish in fast water needs only a beat. A large fish sipping in a slow glide needs a full, slow second. Then lift the rod smoothly until you feel weight. Do not strike: with 6X a sharp strike breaks more fish off than it hooks.

Change the fly, or change your feet?

Anglers change flies far too readily and positions far too rarely. Work through it in order.

1. The fish keeps rising and ignores a fly that drifts cleanly over it three times: change the fly. Go one size smaller first, then try a pattern that sits lower in the film, such as a Klinkhamer or a size 18 F-Fly in place of a hackled Adams.
2. The fish rises to the fly and refuses, or the fly skates: the fault is drag. Change position, usually by moving a metre or two upstream and across so less line crosses the fast water.
3. The fish stops rising when you cast: it has seen the line or leader. Rest it, lengthen the tippet, and move further to the side.

Six careful casts to one fish is plenty. After that every further cast teaches the trout more than it teaches you, and there is always another ring further up the pool.

❦