Dry fly only!

[Chris Shelton]

Dry fly enthusiasts, this is our thread, so lets try to keep it pure.

Any thoughts and comments are welcome!

[gkieser]

Okay here's a question for the dry fly purists:

When you get to a deep section of the river, do you still fish your dries over the deep sections or pass that section of the river by?

If you fish it, what patterns do you use to get these guys to come up from the depths (If of course they are holding deep - sometimes they hold shallow even in deep pools, but I'm not talking about those situations)?

The only success I have had on deep sections with deep holding fish on dries is those hugely oversized RABs, but I wouldn't really call it success.

[Herman Jooste]

Ta Muchly ~ will post a catch report whatever happens

[KevinC]

OK question time- Why are parachute hackled dries so much more popular than catskill type dries at the moment? I, for one, use parachute dries alot more- and believe that they sit a bit lower on the water surface and just look a bit 'buggier' on the water. However, the catskill dries have caught trout for centuries, so why the craze with parachutes? I dont think that I have one traditional adams in my box, yet I have plenty adams parachutes.

I still like to believe that a normal hackled dry has a very important place in a box- i.e. on caddis patterns where you would like to imitate the skate- a parachute body isn't going to be as successful here (lets not get into elk hair now ).

Thoughts?

[Chris Shelton]

Okay here's a question for the dry fly purists:

When you get to a deep section of the river, do you still fish your dries over the deep sections or pass that section of the river by?

If you fish it, what patterns do you use to get these guys to come up from the depths (If of course they are holding deep - sometimes they hold shallow even in deep pools, but I'm not talking about those situations)?

The only success I have had on deep sections with deep holding fish on dries is those hugely oversized RABs, but I wouldn't really call it success.

honest answer? I fish the tail, pick up the few fish that may be lurking there, and pass the rest up. One doesnt have to catch every single fish in the damn river to enjoy yourself with the dry fly

[Herman Jooste]

honest answer? I fish the tail, pick up the few fish that may be lurking there, and pass the rest up. One doesnt have to catch every single fish in the damn river to enjoy yourself with the dry fly

*Playing Devils Advocate* Chris what if you can see the mama of all trout monsters lurking at the bottom?

[Umhlangarox]

Doesnt look like there is any talk of dries flies in this thread

So let me start with a little story of something that amazed me on my trip to CPT. I have used RABS many times in my life but never ones the size of the RABS that i was exposed to in CPT. I was told that this was the size they were supposed to be and the reason that they are so much smaller is because when they started to get commercially made they where serverly reduced in size to save money.(Cant remember the guy who invented them?)

Anyway what amazed me was the way fingerling size trout would absolutely nail these big RABS that were almost half their size. Mind blowing the amount of aggresion Feeding trout can have!!!

[Chris Shelton]

OK question time- Why are parachute hackled dries so much more popular than catskill type dries at the moment? I, for one, use parachute dries alot more- and believe that they sit a bit lower on the water surface and just look a bit 'buggier' on the water. However, the catskill dries have caught trout for centuries, so why the craze with parachutes? I dont think that I have one traditional adams in my box, yet I have plenty adams parachutes.

I still like to believe that a normal hackled dry has a very important place in a box- i.e. on caddis patterns where you would like to imitate the skate- a parachute body isn't going to be as successful here (lets not get into elk hair now ).

Thoughts?

I have also made the switch more and more to parachute flies for the very same reason as you Kevin, the fact that they sit lower in the water has proven to be damn successful on many an occasion in the slower moving glides. I also like the way the parachute alights on the water. No catskill pattern quite presents itself the same way, lets face it.

[Chris Shelton]

*Playing Devils Advocate* Chris what if you can see the mama of all trout monsters lurking at the bottom?

I switch to a monster wooly worm

[izak]

Chris, I know you are dryfly only, so you would enjoy this: It took my more than a year on the cape streams before I caught my first rainbow on a dry. up untill that point I nymped, and had good success. I was so exited when this happend I slipped on a rock and almost broke my back. To this day this is the most memorable moment of my 20 year fishing career (only the last 2 1/2 flyfishing). It felt that I finally found the perfect way of fishing. There is something very special about cathing trout on a dry.

Now I try to dry most of the time, I also enjoy it more. Still have a lot to learn though, but slowly getting there.