Can any one give me advice on Dry fly fishing.

I have some dry flies a 7ft 3# rod and a 9.6ft 7/8#

Im using a tapered leader (Varivas Specialist Dry Fly Leaders and Varivas Standard Leaders) at the moment. The fishing im doing mostly is on small streams river and canals.in the center of leicester.
Roach, chub, etc supposed to be the odd small Grayling and possible trout.

Do i only use a dry fly if i see a rise etc

How long should my leader be from butt to tip?
how should i fish it?
what rod would be best suited and what other set ups would be good?

Cheers

I personally would use the 7ft with a leader about 7-8ft.your not going to be pulling massive fish out and you don't need to cast a mile of line.

Alan

I would personally only fish the dry fly if the fish were rising.

__________________
Theres more to fishing than just fish.

On a small stream or river if you fish terrestrials then you don't have to cast to rising fish but you don't cast blindly either. Get yourself a good pair of polaroid glasses and cast to fish you see. Nice part about fishing with terrestrials is that your presentation does not need to be perfect as you want to make noise when it lands. Ants, beetles and grasshoppers that fall in the water do so with a small splash and then struggle so that's what you want to imitate.

Other than terrestials I agree with Phil and would only cast to rising fish. The 7' is plenty for the type of fishing you're describing although you'ld probably improve your chances if you added some nymphs to your flies.

On your three weight I would say use a minimum of 7 to 8ft, But you may well find that success will improve if you add a longer tippet. A three weight outfit is ideal for small dries and nymphs but you may struggle with larger flies.
I fish mostly on small streams regularly using a 7ft 3 wght , I use a 9ft leader normally and if I struggle for takes I will usually drop a size or two in fly and extend leader by a foot or so and dropping it down in thickness. I usually try that before changing fly pattern.
Terrestials are very important fish them tight to banks under bushes and in wind lanes, Weighted terrestrials dropped with a plop under bushes can often result in very quick takes.

Andy

If rules allow, you may want to experiment with a New Zealand set-up. A klinkhammer, or another buoyant fly on the dry, and a size #18 nymph trailing about a foot behind. It can be tricky to cast, but a short roll-cast with your 7ft rod should suffice if you are fishing tight streams.

Cheers

GF

One tip that nobody else has mentioned is to make sure your leader sinks.

This can be a pain, and I usually find that the fly sinks and the leader floats - the exact opposite to what is needed butit makes an enoumous differance to the fish when you get it right.

james

would you use xink or something similar down the line to do that and Gink on the fly?

Just a personal preference. Gink on the dry-fly and orvis-mud on the leader and tippet works well.

Different dries need different gink treatment, depending on how you want them to float. For example, if you are using CDC flies you do not need to gink them, otherwise you are covering the natural CDC structure which is extremely buoyant in itself.

If it is a hackled fly you apply the gink on the hackles and tail. You do not need to coat the body. This way, the body is slightly submerged in the water film, but the hackle and tail keep it afloat.

GF

No, No No!

You want to make the leader float and the tippet (the extra bit 18' to 24'' of mono or whatever)to sink.

So you use grease (red mucilin or an alternative) along maybe the first foot of fly line and all of your leader to make it float and only make the tippet sink which you can do with a fullers earth mix or commercial mud sinkant.

The reasoning behind this is so you can control the line on the surface but the tippet section is sunk so the fish dont see it floating along with your fly.

Its hard enough fishing in two dimensions, never mind getting your leader to sink and having to control that under water while controlling the movement or lack of your dry fly.