‘Observation, imitation, presentation’ is the mantra when dealing with wily wild fish and first impressions are critical to success
Most seasoned anglers will no doubt have heard the phrase ‘observation, imitation, presentation’ or OIP. This three-step mantra neatly condenses the complexity of fly-fishing (and arguably many other forms of fishing) down to a stark summation of its parts.
Fly anglers place a huge amount of emphasis on the ‘imitation’ part of OIP. The tens of thousands of different flies that have been invented and tied over the centuries attest to this. Our fixation on hatches, when and where they happen, how fish react to them and the resulting visual aspect of our sport means that ‘observation’ is a fundamental attribute of any successful angler. An angler who can’t spot fish or pick out the signs of what they may be feeding on will struggle to catch fish. At a more granular scale, once a fish has been found and a fly chosen, it is critical to then observe how the fish reacts to the fly.
This stage of observation crosses over into the last element of OIP. Watching how a fish responds to a fly (where possible) and altering either the retrieve or the next cast (if one can be made) combines the two elements. How the fly is delivered is critical and it is this component of our sport where I think many anglers make mistakes, resulting in missed opportunities to hook fish.
Rather than rushing straight into a cast, take time to assess the river first – it will pay dividends later
Catching trout
Once a cast has been made to a fish, the decision has already been taken as to where the cast is to be delivered from. Multiple times (including in my own angling, I should hasten to add) I have seen insufficient consideration made of casting position. Obviously, the angler needs to be able to physically make the cast, both in terms of the distance from the fish and the presence of obstacles such as trees. However, once the fly lands on or sinks into the water, it needs to present to the fish like an object that it will recognise as food. Incorrect cast position (among other factors) can then result in the intended presentation being ruined by drag.
I have no doubt that any angler reading this will have experienced unintended drag on their fly when fishing. Seeing a carefully presented dry-fly start to wake just as it drifts down over a trout always elicits a mild form of piscatorial nausea for me. When it comes to fishing for big, wild trout, this scenario is often enough to spook them.
Fly anglers tend to place a great amount of emphasis on the ‘imitation’ component
The first step in combatting drag is to think about what will happen once your fly lands on the surface. Just as an experienced snooker player will consider where the white ball will travel once they have potted the ball they are lining up on, a good fly angler will give thought to how the fly will present once it lands on the water surface. Is the water moving more slowly or quickly between you and the fish? Is the fish sitting in a much slower seam of water than is present throughout the rest of the pool? Don’t just rush in and start to make a cast.
Observing flow patterns should tell you where to position yourself in order to deliver an effective cast
Observing the flow morphology of the river should tell a good angler where to stand in order to deliver an effective cast. Flow patterns can, however, be deceiving. This was demonstrated clearly to me recently on a fishing trip with a couple of friends. One pool in particular that we fished had trout rising in it every day, even on a couple of days when the sun was blazing down from a cloudless sky. When the conditions were better in the evening and more fish started taking insects from the surface, at least one trout would take up position in the tail of the pool where the natural morphology of the river created a wide ‘V’. The natural place to cast for these trout appeared to be from a cluster of rocks a short wade across the river. From here, a square cast across the tail gave what looked to be a drag-free presentation down to the rising trout. (Read how to find trout.)
On our penultimate evening, we had a decent trickle of medium olives and yellow mayflies bringing fish to the surface. However, after multiple refusals to my fly, my fishing partner waded downstream and looked back up the tail as I cast. What was obvious to him from this angle was that when casting from the position I was in, my fly was ‘sliding’ a little as it drifted. This was because the overall current direction was away from me, resulting in the fly tracking a slightly different path from the naturals on the water surface. The next day we found a fish stationed in the pool and a short, square cast from the other bank resulted in a trout (a fat two-and-a-half pounder) rising to the fly on the second or third cast.
This example illustrates a subtle case of drag, but the tail of pools is often a location where drag can be a real problem due to the presence of currents of differing speeds. Where I can, I almost always prefer to cast to fish square across the tail of the pool or alternatively throw plenty of slack into the line and/or stop the cast short and ‘bounce’ the leader and tippet to throw slack in here.
The last technique can be improved by setting up your leader and tippet so that they will have a minimal impact on the drift of the fly once it lands. The key aspects of the terminal connections between you and your fly come down to both the length of leader and the thickness of the tippet.
Most good anglers I know fish with a combined leader and tippet length of a minimum of 15 or 16 feet, and often up to 18 or 20 feet. I have one friend in particular (a superb Spanish fishing guide) who fishes with a leader and tippet set-up that is generally 24 to 26 feet long, with which he generates the most extraordinary drag-free drifts. They are accentuated by the fact that he will fish tippets as light as he possibly can, down to just two pounds in breaking strain. This gossamer terminal connection to the fly further minimises the drag that the leader and tippet create; however, it is not a practice recommended for locations with lots of structure such as weed or bank-side trees, where there may be a need to put reasonable pressure on a hooked fish.
A lovely trout from the tail of a pool that fell to a sparsely tied CDC Emerger
Seeing is believing
Assuming that you have cast from a good location, landed the fly in the right spot and then achieved a drag-free drift, the final fundamental aspect of presenting your fly to a fish can be summed up in a question I often ask myself when fishing. It is one that comes after I have made a cast: ‘Has the fish seen my fly?’ (Read more on casting and how to improve.)This might seem a stupid question but if you ask it of yourself really critically, an honest answer can often stop the feeling that the second step of OIP needs to be revisited.
If the answer to the question is ‘yes’, then you should have confidence that your cast has presented the fly into the fish’s window of vision. In clear water this can be a surprisingly large area; however, the fish may not be moving much and so the extra complexity is that the fly must also have passed the fish on a drift that placed it in a position where the fish was willing to take the fly.
I have experienced scenarios when this question as to whether a fish has seen the fly is more complex. One case in particular was in New Zealand a few years ago, when casting at a trout holding station tight up to some willow trees on the far bank. Regularly rising to take willow grubs, it refused my fly multiple times as it floated down over its head. The fly didn’t appear to be dragging and I put the refusals down to the fact that it was a ‘willow grubber’ – fish that are locked on to the tiny yellow grub of a sawfly that lays its eggs on willow tree leaves. These grubs fall into the water and, due to their small size and abundance, trout that are taking them can often be difficult to fool into taking a fly.
Refusing to give up, I made another cast but it went in slightly long and flicked off the lowest branches of the tree as it landed. Without hesitation the trout rose and took my fly as it drifted over it. Once landed, the reason for the earlier ‘refusals’ was instantly obvious. The fish was blind on the side that had been facing me and so all of my earlier casts would have placed the fly on a drift that came down through its large blind spot. It was only when the fly drifted down on its far side, almost underneath the willow branches, that it was able to see the fly. While this is an unusual scenario, I still often think back to this fish when I have made a cast that has been seemingly refused.
Back on home turf, this question is particularly critical when casting to large trout, trout feeding during a sparse hatch (or fall) or in water where there isn’t a clear flow line bringing food to them. Trout in these scenarios may well be moving around a lot and what may appear to be the rise from two or more fish could well be just one fish that is moving about the pool. Sometimes this behaviour is obvious (for example, the case of the four-pound-plus wild brown trout a fishing buddy and I found feeding on mayflies in a small carrier of the Dorset Frome), while other times it can be difficult to spot. (Read the allure of the magical mayfly.)
On occasions like this it always pays to consider that it could be one fish moving around the pool and, after presenting the fly to the fish, ask yourself the question as to whether the fish would have seen your fly if indeed it is not holding position in one spot.
There isn’t a shortcut to perfecting one’s presentation. In my experience, like many aspects of fly-fishing, it improves as one spends more time on the water casting with a fly-rod. Taking the opportunity to think about some of the questions posed here and considering where to cast from and how the fly will behave before making a cast is often enough to markedly increase one’s chances. In a world where the emphasis is on unrelenting, ever-increasing speed, fly-fishing stands out as an activity where slowing down, asking questions and taking time pays dividends.