How to Reduce Drag - Part 4 (63 of 63)

Oh, nice fish. Pretty fish.

Thank you, Roberto.

Sometimes a way to avoid drag, whether you're nymph fishing or dry fly fishing, is just to move with your feet. Instead of doing anything fancy, instead of doing any tricky things, just move your position.

I've got a spot across from me where I think there's going to be fish. Nothing feeding over there. I can't see anything, but it looks really good. And if I approach it from downstream, I'm casting to the slow water against the far bank.

My fly is going to drag almost immediately. Even though I'm fishing almost straight upstream, my fly's going to drag because I'm going to be casting across faster water.

If I move up and get even with where I think the fish are, it's still going to drag because I'm going to be casting across a faster current. The fly's going to get whipped around. My nymph's going to drag. My dry fly's going to drag.

Now in a spot like this, where I'm straight across from the fish, I could use a reach cast to get myself some extra float before the fly starts to drag.

But let's say the wind is blowing in the wrong direction and I just can't get that reach cast. I can't force the line to go upstream because the wind is blowing. So I'm going to have to change my angle.

If I move upstream and cast down without doing anything else tricky—just casting downstream—that fly is going to drift naturally for a longer period.

So sometimes you have to look at the situation, you have to look at the way the currents are moving, but sometimes just by changing your position, you can avoid drag.

Also, when you're fishing downstream like this, you can use a little reach cast. That'll help if you can do it, if the wind will allow you to bump the line a little bit upstream just before it lands.

And the other thing you want to do is try to follow the fly downstream with your rod as long as your arm will extend. That will give you a little bit longer float.

Bye.