Fly fishing for Beginners: Presenting the Fly on rivers and streams

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Fly Fishing for Beginners
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With the casting out of the way we will move on in this five part beginners fly fishing post. This Post will be dealing with, you guessed it, presenting your fly to potential clients on your bragging board…. Or just presenting your fly to fish, whichever you prefer.

When Presenting a fly there are many different methods. Some think that this is one of the easier parts to learn when fly fishing, after all “all you got to do is get the fly in the water” right. That is true to a point, and you will catch fish by doing this. However, if you want to increase your odds in this sport and become a true fly fishing master, or if you just want to catch more fish, then there’s a lot to learn when it comes to presenting your fly.

Presenting a fly in basic terms means to mimic a form of food that these fish eat close enough so that they think they are eating that insect when they take your fly. This can be done in many ways, and works best when your mimicking what is happening in the water around you. Selection of a particular fly these fish are eating at the time, or would be most interested in eating is key to bringing the most fish to your net.

The first thing that should be known when presenting bait is to know what level of water the fish are biting at, weather it be top, mid water, or bottom feeding. Keep in mind that fish, especially trout feed at all levels, however some of the larger fish prefer feeding under the surface unless you find a top water fly they just can’t resist. You must be able to act accordingly to were these fish are feeding by fishing, dry flies, shallow wet flies, sinker wet flies that sink to the bottom of water bodies, or some were in between.

When it comes to wet fly fishing there are several things you must act on in order to have the best day fishing.

1. Find out the level at which the fish are feeding and move your fly to that level by means of a small sinker, or applying fly sink to your wet fly. You can also use sinking line for this.
2. Use the correct size, color, and species of insect the fish are feeding on.
3. Use the correct movement for that fly. If it should be swimming in the water then strip it. If your fly should not be moving and should be drifting with the current, then you must use proper line control by casting up river and taking up slack while keeping the line closest to you out of the current, or using a bounce cast to create slack in your line. Keep in mind that too much slack may keep you from hooking fish.
4. And finally, use the eddies, lines and breaks in the water. Casting in these strategic locations will allow you to catch more fish, and always fish the canges in water closest to you first so you don’t scare potential bites.

When fishing a hatch there are a few things to consider.

1. Using a dry fly is not always the best way to catch fish during a hatch. Sometimes a foam emerger with a nymph below it works great during these hatches. During a hatch I almost always use two flies when I’m allowed, just make sure your fishing regulations allow it. Fishing two different variations of the hatch, like a dry and nymph, dry and emerger, etc., will almost always get you honed in on the fish faster.
2. Try to stick with the same size of those flies in the hatch. If your fly is too small, the fish will not notice it as much because they are going after bigger flies, and if it’s too big the fish might notice something’s not right and shy away from your fly. If you don’t have a close size, it’s almost always better to go a little bigger than a little smaller.\
3. Use the same color as the hatch. half of the flies tied today are just sugestors, and don’t actually imitate an exact replica of any particular fly. This makes them useful for a variety of different hatches. Fish don’t seem to worry as much about exact shape as they do with size, texture, and color. However, if you don’t match the color, you won’t catch nearly as many fish, so this is more important than the shape of a fly.

When fishing a dry fly some of the key points are;

1. Keeping your fly floating. If your dry fly isn’t floating in an area that is calmer it will look a little odd here, but I have seen people bring in fish off a sunken dry before, just not as much. Use proper fly float, and if your fly does go under, make a sharp circular motion, with the tip of your rod, away from the fly while keeping the line tight. This will usually bring the fly back to top water, and also makes the fly look life it’s skimming the water which looks natural and may attract a fish.
2. Keep the fly from drifting against the current. Proper line control is key when fishing a dry fly. Create slack in your line with a bounce cast when casting straight across river, but keep your slack to a minimum so you can get a good hook set.
3. Fishing in areas where the water slows is the best way to catch fish off a dry fly. Fish pockets and lines were fish are feeding.

With these methods, your experience will be greater on the creeks and rivers. I hope that these tips were helpful and if you like these you should really check out these web sites.
Fly Fishing for Beginners
Fly Fishing Guide Book
Fly Fishing From Scratch