Introduction:

The purpose of this blog post is to give basic information regarding your drift. In all forms of fishing, achieving the correct presentation is important to fishing, but it is especially true when fly fishing. Unlike other forms of fishing, fly fishing does not have the luxury of including scent/taste with its flies. For that reason, presenting the flies as naturally as possible is critical when trying to convince a trout to eat a wad of tied-up feathers.

How quickly is the water moving? (Surface/Subsurface) 

Before you even make cast, you must look at the water you are fishing to determine how quickly it is moving. Just because water is moving very quickly on the surface, does not mean it is moving as quickly underneath. The best example of this is when you cast into the head of a run, right into the white water. Even though on the surface the water is moving very quickly, at the very bottom of the run, the water will be much slower. In that same regard, water can be moving very slowly on the surface, but be moving quickly at the bottom of the hole. This is especially true in tailwaters where the water runs very clear, but in reality there is a lot of flow on the river bed. By understanding the speed the water is flowing, and where you feel trout will be laying, then you are able to determine how quickly you want your fly to drift through the feeding lane. 

When determining where to cast, many times fish like to lay in the merge point between stagnant water and fast moving water. Many times these make small pockets where the water swirls, and trout love to ambush food as it enters the slack water. 

White- Slow current, where fly line on the water will be more forgiving. Your flies will be prone to drag the bottom however. 

Red- The main seam, where you want to keep your fly line off the water as much as you are able. The more fly line on the water, the quicker it will pull your fly through the run. 

Blue- Slack water that spills over from the main run. Approach this by keeping your fly line either off the water, or way over to the right. If you cast into this water, and your fly line is laying in the red, it will pull your fly line out of the blue very quickly, and create a poor presentation. 

Fly Line Control: 

To achieve an ideal drift, understanding how to control your fly line is critical. With the majority of anglers using floating line, that will be the focus on this section. For those of you who euro nymph, that will be addressed in a completely separate post. 

To control your fly line, first you must have the appropriate amount of line out. If your line is completely tight, you are not giving the fly the ability to move freely with the water. Having said that, too much fly line out creates slack that gets caught up in the current, thus creating an unnatural presentation. The big key when controlling fly line is ensuring that the line is off the water as much as you are reasonably able to do. Once you make your cast, lift up the rod tip so that you are able to get as much of the line off the water as you are able. 

The current plays a big factor in this. If you are making shorter casts, most likely you will be able to lift your fly line completely off the water. There is nothing wrong with that, and that gets you more into what is known as "tight line nymphing." However, when making long casts, it is impossible to keep all your line off the water. Having fly line on the water is okay, but you want to keep the line out of the current as much as possible. 

BIGGEST MISTAKE NEW FLY FISHERS MAKE- When fly line is laying in current, very quickly it will be pushed downstream. In doing so, the fly line will then cause your flies to get drug downstream much quicker than if they were naturally drifting down. Anytime you see your fly line "shooting" down stream on a drift, know that you have allowed it to get caught in the current and this makes it difficult to catch fish.  ***Remember, a fly floating in the current is much slower than line floating in the current.***

On the flip side, when fishing stagnant water, it is not as essential to keep fly line off the water. With the water itself having very little flow, it will not cause your line to be pulled downstream in an unnatural way. However, you must be careful to make sure that your flies are still moving. When flies get stuck in stagnant water and have no drift at all, many times it will turn off fish because it does not look natural. Anytime you are fishing stagnant water, look for subtle current differences and small bubble lines to find the best seam to be fishing. 

Fly Control: 

If you are correctly controlling your fly line, many times your flies will fall into place. However, you as a fly fisher should understand what your flies are doing underwater. If you are able to feel or see them dragging bottom too much, this is where instinctively you should give them a very subtle lift up. Not so much to where your drift is ruined, but enough to where the flies are able to get back into the main current, as opposed to dragging bottom. Many times it is better to fix a bad drift in the middle of the hole, rather than let a bad drift go through the entire hole. You might only effectively fish the last third of the hole, but you are giving yourself a better chance at success, than if you didn't adjust them until your next cast. 

There are times where the opposite is true as well, and your flies are not achieving the depth you want. A way to correct this (aside from adding more weight) is by holding the flies in place and stopping your drift. Yes, this will look completely unnatural. However, by waiting a moment and giving your flies additional time to sink, you are fixing what was a bad drift and finishing off with a good drift. 

In this same regard, if you make a cast that is merely a foot away from where you actually wanted it, there is nothing wrong with pulling the fly over to where you wanted it. Even though this is not what a fly would naturally do, by placing your fly in the correct location, you are then achieving the ideal drift down at the middle and bottom of the hole. Sure, you may not catch anything at the beginning of the hole, but by the time the flies reach the bottom, it will appear like the cast was perfect the first time. If you look at the water image, an example of this would be me casting into the top of the blue on accident, and immediately pulling it into the top of red where I actually wanted the cast. Do not make a habit of doing this every time, but doing it sparingly can help you make better use of the casts you make, rather than constantly having to recast until you get it where you want it. Learning to control fly line and manage a drift are skills that takes years to master, but with practice and time on the water, anybody can learn how to properly control a drift/presentation.