So you come to the river and you want to fish dry but see nothing rising, what do you put on?

Personally I'd put on a Klinkhammer in fast water and a foam beetle elsewhere.

What are your own favourites?

I think lots of people like Hans Weilenmann's CDC & Elk for this purpose. Neil Patterson from Fly Fishing &Fly Tying recommended the bivisible, which I found surprising, but I haven't tried it.

me I'd fish a nymph-

I fish dry whenever I think there's a chance of a fish on it, which is about 70% of the time I'm on the water.

Well Craigie's answer is the correct one of course, if your intention is to fish to the river's potential. You should never decide which method you are going to fish before you set out if you want to catch fish consistently - to do so is ultimately limiting and is a common fault amongst many anglers....usually the ones who complain about the fishing being poor!
The cliche 'listen to the river' will stand you in good stead here. The water and weather conditions, fish behaviour, invertebrate activity, past experience etc, should all be considered - give the fish what they want, not what you want.

That said, there is a case for fishing the dry fly blind in some situations. Some rivers respond better than others to this method. For example, a mate of mine has success on the Wharfe by fishing blind over what past experience has taught him are known lies. He knows to the inch where a trout will be and whether it is rising or not, it will usually have a stab at a correctly place pattern.
Of the waters I fish, the Ribble responds quite well to the same tactic, although the Eden, generally, does not.
Another situation where the method can work is on infertile upland streams where small trout are always on the look out for wind blown terrestrials, owing to the paucity of aquatic pickings in that type of environment.

Finally, and in answer to your question (sorry about the rambling!), in such scenarios, I would reach for a large-ish balloon caddis every time.

Matt

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The sun pushed dark spokes of melt and sparkle
Across the fields of hoar. And the river steamed -
Flint-olive.


http://northcountryangler.blogspot.com

i agree with the above, but there is no more fun than the anticipation of will they/ won't they rise. klink and dink covers both methods here.

burhan

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I could fish deep into the night
Well past the light
But at the end of the day
It's the end of the day

Burhan

mc_death187@yahoo.com

It depends on the river, the time of year, the conditions there and then and the rules of the water...

If I cannot see the water whilst tackling up I put on the fly I was using there at the same time yesterday until I get to the water's edge. Then I'd sit down for a while and watch what was happening before deciding whether to cast that fly or change it first.

You can get some ideas of a strategy from this blog starting about here and then clicking newer post on the bottom to read through in sequence. the comments open up the discussion a fair bit too.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Iv turned a few poor days into reasonably succesfull days by fishing size 16 - 18 f-flies blind, usually a choice between black, pale olive and hares ear. Great fun, and a great way to familiarise myself with possible fish lies. Iv fished through some pools with nymphs to no avail, then revisited the same pools with f-flies and had fish, with none or very few showing themselves.

---------- Post added at 05:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:08 AM ----------

Hi Matt, out of curiosity, what size do you consider large ish?

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i was walking far from home, where the names are not burned along the wall, saw a building, high as heaven, but the door was so small

The huge advantage of fishing a dry fly is that you see the take. Balloon caddis works very well blind on the Scottish rivers I fish. I've also had many, many good trout with it on the full downstream dangle whilst thinking or waiting to cast. A real 360 degree dryfly.

CDC & Elk.

Not often I fish blind though, knowing when to be in the right place at the right time is the trick. I spend most of my time walking the banks looking for activity and almost always will eventually find some (not necessarily taking dries off the top)

This means a lot of time not fishing or possibly catching but on areas I know hold better fish, I'm thinking leave them be until they start moving.

Nymph fishing blind is a last resort when these areas remain quiet. Anyway fishing this way is boring.

I'd tend to go nymph, but only if quite cold. Once the season is up and running, I use my brilliant CDC and Herl, which offers fish a nice gobful of black and peacock, hanging below th meniscus always loved by trout. It took loads of trout for me last season in these situations, so much so that I stopped using it! CDC isnt very durable either, no matter what people will tell you.

I also like an ant/beetle pattern made of foam, but despite reasonable tying skills, cant get the sighter post to sit upright.

So Phil at Spidersplus will be getting an order very soon as I'm sick of trying!

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.