Caught my first trout on a dry today!

[D-Rock023]

Today I caught my first trout on a dry fly. About a ten inch rainbow. So fun fun to hear that splash and see the fish take your fly. Being on the creek when the bugs are flying all around, and the fish are rising. Being new to fly fishing I never knew fishing could be so fun. I'm glad I made the choice to get a fly rod. I think I'm already addicted.

 

[boychick]

Congrats!

 

[henrydavid]

I remember the feeling, congrats

 

[Flytie09]

Congrats. Kiss the wad of cash in your wallet goodbye now. The search for your next rod "you gotta have", perfect fly, gear and gadgets galore, fly tying stuff, and gas money will make you broke, but your your new love will bring joy beyond belief.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Congrats! It's a great feeling huh? Just the first of many to come. Great job.

 

[djs12354]

Congrats!

First fish was fun, first on a dry was unreal!

I'm still like a kid in a candy store when I see risers.........

 

[Stagger_Lee]

Good stuff D-Rock.

I was going to start a thread abt dry’s but might as well drop my question in here and see how it goes.

I have caught a ton of WW on drys yet have never caught a trout on a dry .. all mine are on nymphs and buggers. I’m not experienced enough to “match a hatch” but do my best to fish with the closest looking dry in my box when fish are rising to something as well as fished with terrestrials during the season. Drift is fairly accurate and I mend often when there is drag. My guess is presentation and how does one get better at that? I feel like I can practice casting in my yard but when I’m on the H20 it is pot luck if the fly is right side up, proper direction, etc, etc …

Is it just a matter of re-casting if you fail on the original presentation?

 

[Aducker]

congratulations

 

[Cosmic_Nick]

Stagger, in my own experience which is relatively limited in light of dry flys ive found that when presenting a fly my drift also seems fine. If my memory serves me Pcray brought up the idea of "microdrag" which must make that fly look different enough from the naturals to detur the trout from your fly. A bad practice I used to have was presenting the fly over a fish, and if I wasnt happy with it I would rip the fly back and really disturb the water. Worst thing about this was it was all done in front of the fish I was casting to, most likely spooking it. I think with a proper drag free drift the color and size can be a little less exact.

 

[Squaretail]

You'll always remember that trout. It just never seems to leave you.

 

[jeremymcon]

Sweet! Man I love fishing dry flies. Thank god spring is here!

 

[Stagger_Lee]

CN .. I get the spooking so I will no longer do that. What is micro-drag and how important is it to present your fly right side up? Obviously it is better to be r-side up but seems to happen sometimes and other times not. How do you fix that presentation?

 

[Cosmic_Nick]

Stagger this is the post by Pcray where I adopted the term, as far as I know it just refers to a very very small amount of drag.

Im not entirely sure about the fly being upside down, ive never really paid attention, eyes are not that good, lol

Pcray:Rarely is it "seeing" the tippet. I think you could have a rope on there, and if it weren't for drag, they'd still hit. Glue a few inches of some 1x to a real bug, toss it out there, and I bet it gets taken.

Could be the wrong size, that's easy to change. Could be the wrong part of the water column, maybe your natural is floating on top and the naturals are in the film, or vice versa?

Most likely, micro-drag. A little drag doesn't necessarily spook the fish, it just makes it look different than what they're eating, which is drag free.

Finer tippets can help with drag, though I never go below 7x. Lengthening the tippet, or using more supple material has the same effect. Play with the leader and tippet length, play with slack line casts. And part of it is accuracy. With such small bugs they focus on the smallest little current seams, and you gotta be in that seam with the fly doing exactly as the naturals. Invisible naturals make this task harder, about all you can do is guess what naturals are doing by bubbles and such.

 

[Stagger_Lee]

I like this Comic_Nick guy. Not only what i obviously assume is a good taste in musicians he keeps good notes! ;-)

Thanks for the post

 

[L_soult]

My first dry take is what got me hooked.

 

[GenCon]

Congrats, theres nothing else like it!

GenCon

 

[BelAirSteve]

I have posted a similar response on these boards before, so I won't go on and on - but as others have said - you will remember that, and you should! If you are the type to document your milestones, do it, even it if is in a post here at paflyfish.

I remember all of my firsts - on a streamer, on a nymph, on a dry, etc. Now the next step is on flies you tied yourself! If you haven't started tying, watch out! It just gets better!

Well done.

 

[osprey]

Squaretail calls it right when he says you will ALWAYS remember that fish , you will remember it vividly and be able to bring it tomemory like you had a movie of it. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! and may you do it again and again , but you won't remember those like that one.

 

[lv2nymph]

Well done, congratulations.