Mountain Dry Fly Fishing
The mountains of east Tennessee have hundreds of miles of trout streams and as tempting as that sounds, mountain fly fishing can be very technical fly fishing. The stream can range from couple feet or several yards wide, there are the trees and bushes to contend with, and sometimes the weather (wind and rain). All of your focus is placing the fly in a run of water that is a couple yards in length, but not where your fly line is traveling, and that is how the mountains get you. Sometimes an angler can spend just a much time fishing, as untangling wind knots or fly lines from trees and bushes. I have lost many dry flies to the thick rhododendron. However, this type of fishing can be fun and fast paced. Lets start with the basics; a fly rod. This is your most powerful weapon in catching small mountain trout, but it can also be one of the most annoying parts of fishing too.
In my opinion, a good mountain rod is anywhere from seven to eight feet in length. What an angler has to remember is that they will not be able to cast very far. In the areas that I fish in eastern Tennessee, I think the longest cast is about 15 to 20 feet and that is a very rare occasion. Usually, I am bow and arrow casting to small runs and pocket water on six or seven feet in front of me. This is why a shorter rod is helpful. Try bush-whacking through the woods with nine foot rod, then try it with a seven foot rod, then come back to me and tell which was easier. I bet it was the seven foot rod. Even thought the rod is short, you still can cast and fish large dry flies.
The next important aspect of the fly rod is the line weight; what line weight is the angler going to use a two, three or four? There are smaller line weights for the people who enjoy the ultra light and that is fine too. There are larger line weights, but remember, mountain fly fishing usually means catching trout between four to eight inches in length. Here recently, I made a trip to eastern Tennessee to fly fish with the club, MTFF, and for the entire trip I used a seven foot, four weight, TFO Finesse fly rod. I could throw the small stuff, size 14 Caddis Dry Fly, but I could also throw some large flies too, size 6 Stimulator.
Once the angler has chosen the fly rod and line weight and his weapon of choice, the fly that will catch the trout, how does the angler get the fly on the water? This is where an angler must learn the importance of Side Arm Casting, Roll Casting, Steeple Casting Bow and Arrow Casting, and most importantly High Sticking. All of these are important so that a fly fisher doesn’t give to many flies to the trees; which will happen, just get used to it.
I typically use Side Arm Casting when fishing mountains streams with very long runs. This cast consists of standing on the bank of the stream and using the clear area of the stream as my casting lane. The area above the stream is your best chance of finding any clear room to cast. However, a fly fisher still needs to look and identify any potential problems with tree limbs in the area of the forward and rear casts.
Roll Casting is a technique of casting where the angler brings the rod behind them at an angle with the fly line dangling toward the ground forming a “D” shape and then quickly moving the rod forward to “roll” the line out from the angler. This is not the easiest of cast, but can prove very beneficial when there are trees or rocks on your backside and there is no room for a back cast.
Steeple casting is a cast where simple the back cast goes vertically behind the angler at an extreme angle and not is typical horizontal back cast. This type of cast is useful if there are low lying rocks or bushes. The back cast simple goes above the objects in the way and avoids getting tangled up. Again, this is a cast where there should be ample room.
Bow and Arrow casting is simply how it sounds. The angler holds the fly rod and fly line in one hand and uses the other hand to tightly squeeze the tippet or leader between the thumb and index finger. The angler simply pulls back on the leader, forcing the rod to bend, thus forming a “Bow”; the “Arrow” is the leader and tippet. The angler points the fly rod to the area where they would like for the fly to land and releases the “Arrow”, the leader. This type of cast takes some practice, but once an angler learns this cast, they can be deadly with any fly. One quick tip when learning this cast, DO NOT HOLD THE FLY as the “arrow”, if the fly slips, the angler is going to sink the fly into there finger or hand, so be careful.
High Sticking is simply not allowing the fly line to touch the water; the only thing on the water is fly, tippet, and some leader. The angler simply holds the fly rod up and stretched out over the water. If performed right, this can give the fly a natural drift which what a fly fisher is aiming for. This type of method is effective in dry fly and nymph fishing.
Mountain fly fishing can be extremely fun from the rock hopping to climbing over boulders, and hiding behind tree as to not spook the fish, but there are some technical aspects to the sport that an angler should know to help catch fish. I hope the information that was provided was helpful. You have to remember that an angler is chasing six inch rainbows and not six pound browns.
Add comment March 28th, 2008
