Dry fly fishing 101 – How to catch amazing trout and grayling

Excitement rushes through my body when I see trout or grayling rising on the river; even after 40 years of dry fly fishing.

I steady myself as my heart starts pumping.

Then, it’s down to the business of answering the list of dry fly fishing questions that are racing through my mind:

• How big is the fish?
• What does its rise form tell me?
• What fly is it feeding on?
• How to cover the fish without spooking it?

To become one of the anglers who catch 80% of the trout and grayling you have to…

STOP and consider those questions before casting your dry fly.

This dry fly fishing guide explains how to answer the aforementioned questions, with a special reference to dry fly fishing on the Welsh Dee. I’ve also included details of the basic tackle requirements for a beginner to start dry fly fishing. 

How big is the rising trout or grayling?

Well, where fishing is concerned I would be lying if I said…

“Size doesn’t matter”

I certainly want to catch a fish of a lifetime, a Monster trout or grayling.

Don’t you?

Apart from the above flippant comment, the size of the fish is important because it helps you decide on an approach to catching it.

Small fish are less wary, and you’ll probably be able to cover them more than once with your dry fly before it’s spooked. 

On the other hand for large trout, you’re only likely to get one cast to it. So you have to make it count.

If the light is favorable with polarising sunglasses you might be able to see how big the fish is.

However, in poor light or you can’t get into a suitable viewing position without spooking the fish, your only option is to infer its size from its rise form. So, how is that done…

What does the rise form tell you?

The way a trout moves in the water when it’s feeding can tell you several things:

• Its size,
• and feeding patterns.

Small trout often display an excited, splashy rise form…

“more commotion equals smaller fish“

Trout sipping flies off the surface often go unnoticed when you don’t take time to watch the parts of the river where you’d expect a big trout to reside.

When trout and grayling are feeding on emerging flies under the surface you often just see the back of the fish disturbed or swirl at the surface. Also, there is an absence of bubbles on the surface.

On the Welsh Dee, if you see this back-breaking rise form in the tails of a pool, it is usually a grayling, which can be quite large.  

Now you should have an idea of:

• the size of the trout or grayling, and
• if it’s taking flies as they emerge or on the surface.

The next step in the process is to determine what fly the fish is feeding on. 

Dry fly selection for trout & grayling: 

In this important step, focus on what flies are hatching (coming off the water). Rather than the flies buzzing around you because the latter might be a result of a previous hatch, and the fish are now feeding on something else. 

If you can identify the fly, move on to selecting a suitable dry fly from your fly box.

Sometimes identification is impossible, even when using a pair of binoculars to get a closer look.

This is where knowledge of the flies that might be hatching on the river becomes invaluable.

Fortunately, as a starting point, you only need basic knowledge of the most common fly species you’re likely to see on UK rivers.

Flies for river fishing: A mobile-friendly guide that helps in matching the hatch

Armed with this knowledge it’s a matter of selecting a suitable fly from your box and seeing if tempts the fish.

If there’s no response after a few casts it’s now a trial-and-error process until…

“BINGO – Fish On”

I must add a word of caution on the trial and error process:

If you’ve spotted a big fish don’t practice this trial-and-error approach on it, because you will only have one or two casts before it spooked.

A wiser approach is to leave the big fish alone. Instead, move on and target smaller fish, those with splash rise forms, with the trial and error approach for fly selection.

When you’ve identified a fly that catches the small fish, go back to target the larger fish with it. Often the large fish will be taking the same flies.

How to present the dry fly:

When stalking a rising trout or grayling, the next challenge is presenting the dry fly to have the best chance of catching it.

The first step is to decide on a position where you can make a good cast without putting the fly line over the fish and spooking it. Usually, this will be downstream of the rising fish. 

Take your time sneaking up to the casting position.

Once there, wait patiently until you’ve seen it rise a couple of times, before making the cast. 

Aim to get the fly to land about 1-2 ft above the rise and slightly over to the near side of the fish. If you cast directly at the rise, the fly will land behind where the fish is lying and will be missed because it is watching upstream for its dinner.

It’s important the first cast to the trout is your best and the fly drifts drag-free towards it. Since with every additional cast, the likelihood of spooking it increases dramatically.

When everything aligns, the fly will be engulfed, and when you strike…

the fish takes off and you’re in PLAY

What if your cast was perfect but the trout failed to take the fly?

More often than not it’s because the fly dragged on the surface, it might only be slight but that can be enough to put the fish off taking your fly. 

In this case, you need to make a cast that lays down some slack-line to eliminate the drag, e.g. the reach cast…

The following video shows how to catch a wild brown trout using the dry fly fishing Reach Cast…

If drag is not the problem, other solutions to try, include: 

• switching to a longer, finer tippet,
• using a smaller fly pattern
• changing to an emerger pattern that floats just in or below the surface

When I’m having trouble seeing the fly, because it’s small or there is a ripple on the water, I often switch to fishing a double dry set-up.

The double dry set-up involves fishing the small fly on a 2ft dropper, trailing behind a large sight fly. 

One of my favourite double dry set-ups is a size 18 Griffith’s Gant paired with a size 12 Elk Hair Caddis, which is very effective on the Welsh Dee and River Ribble.

Sometimes you are faced with a situation where an upstream cast to the rising fish isn’t possible and your only approach is a downstream cast.

When casting downstream you need to introduce slack in the line just before it lands on the water, so that the fly will drift drag-free to the fish. If the fish doesn’t take the fly, you need to recast before the line is fully extended. 

The downstream casting method I found easy is to ‘check back’ the line before it lands on the water. You could also make a slack-line cast by wiggling the rod just before the line lands. 

When it all comes together you can have a spectacular and exciting day dry fly fishing for crafty trout and grayling.  However, if it doesn’t you can always turn to wet fly fishing or nymphing and hopefully net a fish of two.

My Top 7 flies for dry fly fishing on the Welsh Dee:

Dry fly fishing tackle – basic list for beginners:

Fly fishing rod:

I use a 9ft #5 weight rod with a mid-tip action for all my dry fly fishing, on small to large rivers (up to 50ft wide). However, I would quite happily use a 9ft fly rod in weights from #3 to #6.  

Fly fishing Reel:

For dry fly fishing, I would recommend a small, lightweight reel matched to the fly line weight. There are plenty of reasonably priced reels on the market that will do. Look for one that has a smooth easy to adjust drag-system.

Dry fly line:

At the moment for my dry fly fishing, I’m using an Airflo SuperDri WF5. Most branded lines are of good quality, therefore, if you are starting out pick an inexpensive one.

Leader & Tippet

Most of the time for dry fly fishing I use a 9ft copolymer or monofilament 5X tapered leader and add 3ft of 3lb copolymer. On windy days switch the leader from a 9ft to a 7ft 5X tapered leader.

Dry Fly fishing accessories:

• A landing net with a magnet release clipped on the back of your jacket
• A bottle of dry fly floatant – I use Gink
• Line degreaser – I use Fulling Mill Fuller’s Mud
• Something to dry the fly – I use a dry microfiber cloth

Also if you are interested in dry fly fishing on the Welsh Dee there is some excellent Day Ticket water at Llangollen.

I hope you have found this post on dry fly fishing for crafty trout and grayling very interesting.

PS. It would be great to hear your thoughts on this dry fly fishing post and please share it with your friends.