doing an effective line mend

[William Anderson]

I recall seeing this hat in your basement William.

[Tom Smithwick]

Fishing tip on mends. A very counter intuitive, but sometimes effective technique is to use a downstream mend. Of course, this causes the fly to drag immediately, but swim directly across the river below your position. This shows a broadside view of the fly to fish lying upstream, which can be effective with streamers in particular. Also effective when fishing an Isonichia hatch, when swimming the nymph in an emergence.
It is also worth an occasional try if things are slow with dead drifted wet flies. I guess the fish take them for micro minnows.

[swellcat]

I guess the fish take them for micro minnows.

That's a very interesting speculation, one I'd hoped to get at in revisiting the "Silver Flies" thread.
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[redietz]

Of course, this causes the fly to drag immediately, but swim directly across the river below your position.

Not if there's a back eddy on your side. You sometimes have to mend downstream to maintain a dead drift.

But, yes, speeding up the "swing" is sometimes effective as well. You mention iso's but I've also found it true when there are little black stones on the water. Sometimes trout just want to chase something and kill it.

[Bitterroot]

Interesting topic ! as new guy here in this forum I can shade some light on mending while fishing wet fly.
In many cases on my home water in Montana I use long medium to slow action rods in 10-12' length with quite long leaders anywhere from 14-18' and up ! I find very small use of mending with this set up and very little disturbance on the surface of water causing casting fly line since very little of it is on the water with only small L shape line to fallow the rest of the leader. Very simple single mend is done ( similar to moving book on your desk from left to right ) rest of it is done by fallowing with rod held high in the air similar to high sticking, or Polish nymphing.
Living on the banks of river and fishing just about everyday of the year you can learn quite bit from fish swimming in your home water in many cases I do you 8-9' rods and shorter leader and the basics of mending but its lots of fun to get up there very close to wild hard fighting trout with long softer rod /long leader and be able to detect strikes also using longer butt sections of the rod with softer tip allows angler to go way down in tippet diameter and helps land that fish with out breaking it, casting in my opinion is easier and again gentler on fine tippets and small flies.

[Bitterroot]

I know this is off topic but I wanted to ask someone here. I wanted to do test photo and uploaded 265 kb images and I got the this note : Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached.
Is anyone could help me here? I send email to the person running the site but not hear from him.
Would love to post few fly images .
Thanks for your help and time.
Les

[letumgo]

Les (Bitterroot) - First off, welcome aboard! I am glad you are jumping right in. Make yourself at home, and I am looking forward to reading more posts from you in the future.

The picture thing is complicated (to late to give you a good answer tonight). If you are able to host your photos on another photo sharing site, you can insert links to the photos using the “Img” button above. I am using Google Photos to host my photos. I then copy the link into this site, to display the images. Not to difficult, but it takes a little more effort than just uploading an image.

[Bitterroot]

Great, I appreciate your help. I will try that.
Thank you

[Theroe]

A crisp line mend is an important skill for a wet fly fisherman. Some of you may be well ahead of me, others maybe not. Here's the method I use:

To actually make the mend - Point the rod directly at the line, and focus on the rod tip. Draw a circle of about 1 foot diameter very crisply, ending up with the rod tip back in it's original position at the bottom of the circle. You can draw the circle starting at the left or the right depending on the river flow direction. With practice, this becomes second nature.

Making the line mend where you want it to - Sometimes you will want to mend the line near you, and sometimes farther away, depending on the current tongue you are trying to defeat. If you want to mend near you, have only a few feet between you and the point where the line first touches the water. If you want to mend further away, lift the rod tip until the line contacts the water further away. In general, the first 10-15 feet of the line in the water will mend. A haul pickup is a great help in doing this.

A haul pickup is a way to lift a lot of line off the water without making a commotion on the surface. Basically, you smoothly draw the line toward you with your line hand, while lifting the rod with your casting hand. If lifting the line for a backcast, lift the rod tip to about 10:00, then flick the line behind you as you normally would. If making a mend, use the same procedure, but don't raise the rod tip much above horizontal. Do not hesitate between the pickup and the mend.

I hope this kind of post is OK. Up to our behinds in snow here in central PA

Nice FRESH post Tom: most relevant! Especially when one is attempting to get his wet to ride the current as a natural would.....your phrase captures it perfectly: the "tongue you are trying to defeat"! I have a couple of spots on the Lackawaxen and the Beaverkill which I am still trying to master. On the odd day I DO get a proper drift, the result is usually a nice fish. One spot in particular always seems to defeat me: the top road hole above Horse Brook Run on the Beaverkill. Depending on the water level, there are 3 or four tongue's, with slack water between, making for a very difficult presentation. Your "circle tip mend" post, above is not only the answer, but an important point for all - Thank You.

Dana

[tie2fish]

Nicely described, Tom. Your tips should help those of us still struggling with this issue.