Don't shoot the messenger

[hankaye]

Ron Eagle Elk, Howdy;

Guess I'll just have to chew on that awhile....
Rain dance worked .....
Now we just need enough to fill the reservoirs
Thanks Ron.

hank

[DUBBN]

Ron, I think that pretty much summarizes how I do a down and across as well.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I can't count the number of fish I've had slam a fly when hanging on the dangle. Back in my smoking days I was letting the line hang downstream while I got a cigarette lit up. I was fishing the Cowlitz River for Sea Run Cutthroat. Just as I brought the lighter to the cigarette with my right hand, cupping the flame with my left hand, a summer steelhead grabbed my fly and took off. In the attempt to grab my rod before it followed the fish down river I dropped the lighter and cigarette in the river. Grabbed the rod, put my hand on the reel to palm it and the tippet parted and the fish escaped with my fly. After that I left the water to light up.

[daringduffer]

I was searching for something the other night and found this instead. Just found it appropriate to post in this thread:

"To fly fish for grayling, use a floating fly line and position yourself a few yards upstream from where you judge the fish to be. Cast square across, and a yard or two beyond the line of the current that leads to the fish; then, directly the line is on the water, bend it into an upstream curve which will pull the fly back into the correct line of current. The fly will now sink and continue to do so until the current changes the upstream curve which will pull the fly towards the surface again. This is when the grayling will take, and you will know that it has happened when you see the end of the line stop. All you need do then is to tighten the line, and the grayling will be hooked.
http://angling-guru.info/fishing-for-grayling"

Then I found a book that Donald scanned; "THE GRAYLING Salmo Thymallus
by Richard Lake, F.R.C.S.
with chapters on
Dry, Wet Fly and Bait Fishing
by Roger Woolley"
Woolley says, about fishing the dry, (which confirms my limited experience);

"Another point that to my mind is is most important: do not fish up stream for grayling, as you would for trout. Always present your fly down or across and down to rising grayling. You will catch a lot more fish. For one thing, you will, by drifting the fly down to the rising fish, present the fly without showing the cast, and to so keen sighted fish as the grayling this makes a difference. Their manner of rising, too, not going forward to meet the fly, but a kind of a leaning backwards to get it, and particularly the formation of their mouth, a very much overhung top lip, to my mind makes a drifting fly more sure of being taken than one that is cast up stream to them."

Grayling rise from the bottom to surface insects and return to the bottom. They don't hoover sub-surface like trout can do. Their window thus is much larger than the trout's.
A quote regarding wet flies:

"A reasonable imitation of a nymph can hardly be taken for anything but a nymph, but what about the winged and hackled flies that we use. What are they taken for? Some of them like nothing in the air, on the earth, or in the water. A damaged or dead natural fly in rough water is not like the neat fly that we use for wet fly fishing. Its wings and legs are limp and tossed about by the stream and has very little resemblance to the neat and trim dun or spinner that we see floating down the stream so beautifully and jauntily. The very lightly dressed soft hackled flies that are used on northern streams may very well represent a drowned, bedraggeled fly, and be taken for such, but none but the grayling knows what our flies are taken for. The only inference we can draw from their acceptance of them is that they seem to be something eatable, and they are sampled in the hope that they may be a dainty addition to their dietary. All the evidence we have points to Nymphs being the chief item of the underwater food of the grayling, so we cannot go far wrong in putting on our cast a seasonable imitation of a nymph. So take in your fly box imitations of the Olive, Pale Watery and B.W.O. Nymphs, and use them as circumstances dictate. Also carry a selection of lightly dressed hackled flies, tied for movement, that may be taken for the drowned and damaged flies, such as Waterhen Bloa, Greenwell spider, Dark Watchet, Brown Owl, Olive Bloa Dark Needle, Poult Bloa, Blue Hawk. These may be tied with either a soift, mobile feather or a lighter stiffer hackle; but whichever is preferred, it must be lightly dressed, so that the stream works on the fibres and gives the fly the appearance of life."

He goes on about the importance of fancy flies (for grayling) and tells the reader that he always starts the days fishing with two fancy flies, fished wet, invariably the Grayling Witch and Grayling Steel Blue. By so doing he is catching grayling whilst observing the prevailing conditions.
Well, my only intention was to write about his advice to fish downstream for grayling, and why, and relate to my (limited) experience. Although I type so slowly I had to give you the rest since I find it a beautiful read.
The reason for writing about grayling fishing is that this is my preferred quest. Catching the odd trout is just collateral damage.

dd

[DUBBN]

" but none but the grayling knows what our flies are taken for"

There's a whole lot of wisdom there. Thank goodness, it's also a heck of a disclaimer.

[Roadkill]

These words of Pete's on page 137 in TAoTTWF&FTF about Big Jim are ones that I try to follow if I am out to catch fish.

" He approached a stream with a strong desire to please the trout rather than simply gratify his personal preference for just one technique. I can still hear him say (at his fly-tying table and on the stream). "You must tie your fly and fish your fly so the trout can enjoy and appreciate it." As a result he fished a dry when the fish preferred a floating fly and shifted both his techniques and his fly patterns as necessary to stay in tune with the changes in insect activity or the preferences of the trout."

How well you can follow this advice is based on your own level of experience and ability to understand and modifly your fishing equipment, wade, cast, present the fly, read water, and understand fish and insect activity. And don't forget Leisenring's other sage words, "We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours."

[John L]

Year around, most days I fish locally there is not a rising fish to be seen. My rivers are all freestone and all have large populations of various caddis, and lesser populations of stoneflies, mayflies and midges. During the winter there is so little insect activity of any kind that the fish almost hibernate. Even bait fishermen hardly score. Since no matter what fly or style I use then I catch little, so I don't fish much then. Now that March is ending, Blue Wing Olive adults have started to show, and there is a little rising to them, and fish can again be caught in wadeable water.

For some reason I have always preferred wading and fishing upstream and close. Probably my technique developed accordingly. Usually no rising, so wet fly. I need the fly to sink to fish depth quickly to make use of a close-in cast. These days I use 1/8", 3mm tungsten bead headed flies. I find that while fishing close with such heavy flies, I can keep a taught line to see takes without needing an indicator. In adverse light I often feel the take. Pretty much Euro nymphing.

My rod is 11' long, a Tenkara pole. If the water is deep I let more line down in the water and if it is shallow I hold more line up.

In winter, and now, I virtually only get takes during dead drift no matter what size or pattern of fly I use. But come the first caddis hatch, and then for the whole summer and fall, that changes. Bright flies and a lift a la Leisenring, or even the fly dangled downstream, or fished downstream, way outproduces subdued flies and dead drift.

There is my whole boring (maybe to you) technique.

During the rare times of much fish rising I do terribly with the technique, but still catch an occasional fish and, like I said, most days there is not a rising fish to be seen.

[Mike Connor]

Indeed, fishing down works pretty well for grayling but is generally poor for most other fish.

May be of interest;

http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=16949.0

[Kelly L.]

I have heard people talking about swinging, and the Leisenring lift. I had no idea what that was. I mostly fish lakes, so there is usually no current, unless I fish at the dam. The dam is good, if the water is flowing. But our water has been low, and they have little current most of the time. This was a good topic. I usually don't come here, because of time constraints, to this particular forum. I do good to keep up with the Cabin, Tying Wingless Wets, and Fly Dressings. Today I saw a couple of videos that explained those terms. I have no idea what the best videos are, that are free. So this is a good topic, and I hope to learn more. It has been raining, so I have been in the house more than usual.

[Mike Connor]

I have heard people talking about swinging, and the Leisenring lift. I had no idea what that was. I mostly fish lakes, so there is usually no current, unless I fish at the dam. The dam is good, if the water is flowing. But our water has been low, and they have little current most of the time. This was a good topic. I usually don't come here, because of time constraints, to this particular forum. I do good to keep up with the Cabin, Tying Wingless Wets, and Fly Dressings. Today I saw a couple of videos that explained those terms. I have no idea what the best videos are, that are free. So this is a good topic, and I hope to learn more. It has been raining, so I have been in the house more than usual.

You might like to have a look through this;

http://midcurrent.com/techniques/