Successful flyfishing is all about delusion, confusion and deception.
Fooling the fish is the key element to success.
Whether it be with the fly where you fashion feathers, fur, thread, foam and flash into something that’s a reasonable facsimile of the food source floating on or under the water. Or something else.
Because there’s more to that than meets the eye.
To successfully set a hook you also must first convince the trout, whitefish or grayling that the morsel floating through their cone of vision is acting like the real deal.
Especially when angling on flowing water where conflicting currents can cause flies to travel unnaturally in what fly fishers call “drag.”
Drag is bad. Especially when angling for large, multi-year fish when this is not their first rodeo.
The way to mitigate against it and create a natural drift is to impart a casting technique known as a “mend” on your line.
Especially when confronted with faster or slower currents, eddies, rapids and other impediments between you and the target zone.
This involved throwing a loop of line either upstream or downstream depending on the current allowing the fly an extended natural drift over the lie.
Another method is to throw a “wiggle” cast by manipulating the rod tip and creating slack on the stream surface.
Mending is also important when running nymphs under a strike indicator so that the flies and indicator are moving at the same speed throughout the water column.
Like Buck Owes the great country music legend said, “all you got to do is act naturally.”
And go with the flow.
