it seems that the one area of my trout fishing that needs improving on is fishing the dry fly on stillwaters. this is particularly relevant to me as it is a very effective tactic on my local water, toft newton near lincoln. i have had relative success in the past. i normally fish a team of 3 dries on a 15ft leader with 5 ft between droppers. i normally use patterns such as bobs bits, shipmans, g&h sedge, hoppers etc. nearly everyone else seems to do a lot better than i do. i am using my usual reservoir set up of 10ft 7wt outfit. should i be scaling it down maybe to a 5wt for example.
any help or advice woul be greatly appreciated, many thanks, terry. greater distance between droppers, longer leaders, less flies, all these questions spring to mind

Hi im no expert by any means but i have been fly fishing for a good number years, Mainly on rivers but i have done some on stillwaters, Anyway the things i have noticed that improve my take ratio are :-

1, Having more than two dries on my cast not only makes it more difficult to concerntrate on what the flies are doing on the surface but also makes it harder to get the right presentation.

2, Having the leader sunk right up to the fly deffinatley helps, I use a paste by orvis called mud it seems to do the job, You can use anything really that degreases line and take the shine off which helps it cut through the surface film.

3, If fish are being finiky i find that if you pull the hackle upwards so theres less fibres underneath by the belly of the fly it helps give a more natural presentation which should result in less refusals (hopfully).

About the 5wt vs 7wt I use both these rods on a stillwater and for dry fly fishing i much prefer the 5wt. It not only gives me more control and better turn over of the fly but the fly line lands on the water much softer than the 7wt which hopefully doesn't spook any fish near by. Like i said im no expert or never claim to be but hopefully some of this helps.
Regards Ryan.

Hi Terry,

Dry fly on the still waters is my favorite method, I usually do ok (probably jinxed now) with the following. I go for about 17ft total leader length with two dry/damp flies. I have around 7ft between flies with the dropper about 6inches long. I make the butt section up according to the wind, tapered from 15lb copoly down to 6lb for the 1st dropper then another 7ft of 6 or 5lb depending on the point fly. I use a Bobs Bits variant mostly with what ever else I fancy on the dropper. I generally get a stealthy casting rhythm going leaving the flies static for a time and then a retrieve which I vary depending the fish. I always cast to rising fish, I reckon the 7ft between flies is a nice distance for a stealthy presentation.

I use a 6wt 10ft rod and I use the orvis mud when ever the leader is visible.

Recently with the alders and bibios on the water I've had one of them on the dropper acting as a bob fly making a nice wake on the retrieve. They have been slamming the bobs with this method the past few days.

Hope thats clear enough my English is terrible.

Cheers,
Jay.

__________________
The tug is the drug.

keep it simple.

10ft mono leader with the last 2ft degreased, dry fly of your (mainly the trouts) choice.

that usually does it for me.

have been told that hanging a buzzer under the dry fly NZ style is an option. i have not tried this yet but i think it is well worth a try

I've been fishing New Zeland style for a few years now & had great success. Give it a go you wont be disappointed.

Just on that NZ style, does the nymph not drag the dry under all the time, also what length leader to the nymph...Ta

Try one fly, degrease the last two feet, and try a klinkhammer it gets less refusals in my experience (which isnt great) and be patient, constantly casting out makes the fish wary

Gary

For many years I used a 10' 6 weight for dries on stillwaters. Leader of about 14' and only 2 flies. This was on the principle that I could keep an eye on 2 better than 3. The usual mix of dries/emergers, but always with the larger one on the dropper. The idea here is that this one is easier to see and gives you an indication of where the point fly is. If your flies are 6' apart and you can see the dropper fly you know that any disturbance of the water beyond that is likely to be at your point fly. I only use fluorocarbon as it saves all that mucking about with de-greasing the leader, and I rarely leave the flies on the water for more than 15 seconds unless I am setting a trap for a fish moving towards them. Then I will leave the flies until I am certain he has passed them, or taken one. Other than that it is a question of fan-casting the water in front while keeping an eye open for rising fish which should always be cast to if in range.

Hello Terry

Looks to me like you are not too far from the truthWhich tippet are you using?Are you degreasing regularly if it is mono/copolymer? Size of flies ?Here on Chew Valley and Blagdon Lakes size 14 seem to top the bill over a season.

5wt would be my choice for reservoir dry/emerger fishing as usually here settled conditions go hand in hand with the fish feeding in the surface layers.You can still fish with a 7wt I just personally find more tendency to open out lightweight hooks especially with fast action 7wts plus a tad easier all round and more in tune with the method using a lighter outfit although do not fish with a lighter tippet than I would on the 7wt.Just my take on it and how I was introduced to reservoir dry fly fishing for pleasure.

Sometimes when fish boil at the fly or near a tweak of the fly will flick the switch.Not always I might add but sometimes

New Zealand/US hopper dropper,hopper dropper cropper set up can be a real killer fished off a buoyant dry fly.

Best JP

i seem to only fish one fly when dry fly fishing also. IMO presentation is better and fish dont seem to get spooked by 3 flies crashing down on the water.

I use a 12ft leader (airflo Sightfree)

Andy