Mending lines

[Benja]

Hi all

Everybody mentions that you should mend your line to get a drag free drift.
What is this mending? How is it done?

I've never fished in moving water before so could someone please explain.

Cheers
Benja

[Korrie]

Hi
You get aerial mends and on the water mends.
If you cast across the river. with the river flowing from left to right.
Once you have cast and your fly line is still in the air, you move the fly rod towards the left.
This will shift the flyline also to the left.
When the fly line lands on the water it will have a bulge, on the upstream side.
This will compensate for the water flowing from the left to the right.
You can do this to the left or right, depending on the flow.

[Korrie]

You can mend at diffirent stages of the forward cast.
To have the tip, mid or end section of the fly line to have the mend in.

Mending a fly line on the water entails doing a little half round circle with the rod tip.
This will lift the fly line of the water and throw a loop in the fly line.
This you do to the side you want to have a mend in.

You can also mend lines on still waters, if there is a wind blowing, and you want to compensate for the blowing wind, you can cast a upwind mend into the line, or for the line on the water.
Mending on the water is usually only for floating lines.
Where casting a mend in the line will be for all types of fly lines.
Hope this helps

[Korrie]

Really skilled casters will be able to cast a left and right mend in the same cast to compensate for diffirent laminar flows across a big river.

Mending on a drifting dry fly is very important.
As this compensate for diffirents flows and stop the fly from getting drag.

[Korrie]

Sometimes you want to cast a down stream mend.
This is if you want to swing a fly past a likely looking hold and you want to give the impression of a fleeing baitfish etc.
The down stream bulge will accelarate the movement of the fly which might induce a take.
Fishing with soft hackles, this is sometimes a very good techinque, to get the fish to take the flies.

[Benja]

Thank you very much Korrie!!
This answer my questions
will be practising it

[Andre]

Thank you very much Korrie!!
This answer my questions
will be practising it

mending can be described as " changing the directional influence of the flyline, by using the rod top, to influence the drift of the fly". Sometimes you would want to mend, to actually create drag to induce a take.
It is a deadly technique on the Cape Streams sometimes to give the fly a longer drag fee drift, and thus more water time. It involves a controlled flick of the flyline with the rod tip, to put the line parrallel to the flow of the water.
With numphing for yellows, an upstream mend can be quite valuable in assisting the descent of the fly. Remember that while the mend is in progress, there is slack line, so it needs to be done quickly. downstrem mending is again valuable when using the "accross and down" technique. There are very few casts where some form of mend woun't come in usefull.
It sounds complicated, but it can be learned in a few casts if you know what you are wanting to achieve. You are probably doing it already without knowing that you are actually mending.
One of the problems with flyfishing, is that all these really simple things are given such fancy names that can intimidate people, but once they know what it is, find out that they have been using it all along.....common sense stuff really.

[Korrie]

Andre
You made me think of another mend, which you briefly touched on.
Swinging egg laying caddis at last light.
You would cast 45 % down stream, to mantain the right amount of drag on the fly, mending down stream until the fly is excatly down stream of you.
The whole time you are making sure that there is just enough drag on the fly to imitate the egg laying caddis.
You mentioned you are going to the Lower Orange.
Try above technique with the last half hour of light in the long glides or slower moving pools.
Watching the water/fly for the aggresive take is as you described a cold beer after a hard day "liquid sex"

[Andre]

Andre
You made me think of another mend, which you briefly touched on.
Swinging egg laying caddis at last light.
You would cast 45 % down stream, to mantain the right amount of drag on the fly, mending down stream until the fly is excatly down stream of you.
The whole time you are making sure that there is just enough drag on the fly to imitate the egg laying caddis.
You mentioned you are going to the Lower Orange.
Try above technique with the last half hour of light in the long glides or slower moving pools.
Watching the water/fly for the aggresive take is as you described a cold beer after a hard day "liquid sex"

negative brother, the last half hour of light is used to cast to working largies.....but ya, Iwill take your word for it

[poppernel]

HI GUYS( small stream)

What do you think of Lefty's stagger cast?, and do you guys utilise it? Makes a lot of sense on paper.

Dave