By Ken Kastorff
We all endeavor to be the best that we can be on the water. Fly fishing, first of all, should be fun but the, in the end, is to be successful and catch fish. So I thought I would write an article this month covering some of the more common mistakes that we as guides see on the water.
Casting! – A book could be written on casting mistakes, so I am going to say right away that I am not going into the quagmire of trying to teach fly casting here. Instead, I am just going to bring up some basic mistakes that I consistently see while guiding. Probably the most common mistake is doing too many back casts. When you are streamer fishing, learn how to do one, or at a maximum two, back casts and shoot at least thirty to forty feet of line back out again. I have seen fly anglers strip the fly in and then do five or more back casts before getting the fly back on the water. One thing for sure is that you don’t catch much with the fly sailing through the air and most times, the more back casts I see the worse the cast gets.
Learn how to do a positive and negative curve cast. Without this skill, you are at a great disadvantage especially when dry fly fishing. Having a good curve cast eliminates having to do a bunch of mending. Speaking of mending, mend like you are doing a sideways roll cast. Get the line up off of the water or you’re just going to drag the fly and once you mend, keep as much of the fly line as possible out of the water.
Euro Nymphing – While there are times that a strike indicator seems easier to use, Euro nymphing, or Czech Nymphing as it is sometimes called, is a very efficient way of nymph fishing. It is a much more dynamic style of nymph fishing and encourages the raising and lowering of the rod to keep the nymph in the bottom of the river. I have found that even first time fly anglers do better tight line fishing, but just like everything in fly fishing, there is a learning curve. Here are some common mistakes that I see. The biggest error is not casting far enough upstream so that the nymph has time to get to the bottom of the river. If your nymph isn’t on the bottom of the river, your chances of success are most times slim to none. At the same time, it is important to keep the line tight. You want a straight line from the nymph to the tip of the rod. The second mistake I see is not keeping the rod directly over the nymph, or even better, leading the fly as it drifts down stream. If the nymph gets in front of the rod during the drift, then it will most likely be dragging, and again, this will kill your success rate. Cast your nymph to a different point upstream so that the nymph does a drift in a different place each time. Start with a cast, pretty much straight upstream, and then cast a foot or two out to the side with each consecutive cast. If there is a hungry fish out there, it will most often take the first drift. Get your fly in new water as often as possible. Casting in the same place again and again is nothing more than casting practice.
The Hook Set! – Probably the biggest mistake that I see on the water is no hook set or a hook set done wrong. The problem usually occurs when the sighter line isn’t tight and, consequently, there is no way to see there has been a hit on the nymph, or the sighter line twitches, stops, moves to the side, down or upstream and the angler does nothing. There are two ways to know you have a fish on the line, feel it or see it! If that sighter line even begins to move do a probing set. (A probing set is a short set just to check if there is a hit on the Nymph). If there is no resistance, then continue the drift. Remember any unusual movement of the line is a fish. My advice is to fish as though there are no rocks in the river! If the line moves, assume it is a fish. Most often by the time you feel a fish on the line, it has already committed suicide. Trout will take a nymph and if it isn’t real, they will spit it out as fast as they can, the sooner the hook set, the better success you will have. The same is true when streamer fishing. Watch the line. If it stops, set the hook. There is a second or two-delay before you will feel the hit, but you will almost always see the line stop before feeling the hit. If you are dry fly fishing, you can’t be a sleep at the wheel. You have to concentrate on the fly and set the hook at the moment of the strike. Many of us struggle with seeing a small dry fly on the water. Use two flies, a larger one in front of your primary fly. That way you will always be able to refocus on your primary fly after the cast.
Whenever possible, set the hook downstream. Trout normally will come upstream to take a Nymph. Setting downstream sets the hook against the trout. An upstream hook set more often pulls the fly away from the fish. If the hit comes while your fly is downstream from you, then set the hook low to one side or the other. Remember the worst hook set is directly back upstream from the fish.
The last thing I want to mention is one of the most common mistakes I see people make. If you are not catching something, then assume you are doing something wrong. Change your fly, change your presentation, change your drift, change your retrieve, change, change, change… until you figure out what will work. We all have days when it was fishing, rather than catching, but don’t fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over again rather than continuing to experiment until you figure out the magic combination.
Good luck out there!
Ken Kastorff is the Owner and Guide at Endless River Adventures located along the Nantahala River in Bryson City, North Carolina.