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By
LOSA Member Loren Williams
Drag. At the mere mention of that word among stream anglers you are likely to get two looks; one is quizzacle—one is horrified. Few anglers fully understand drag; even fewer know how to overcome it. Yet in order to be consistently successful, tackling drag is of supreme importance. Drag is the most common reason one angler can follow another and repeatedly pull fish from the very run that his buddy just pounded. He knew how to run a drag-free (dead drift) drift and his buddy did not. Not that his buddy lacked experience…not that his friend was less of an angler, it is simply that he understood drag and his pal did not. Most likely some dude took the time to show angler #1 the ins and outs of running a drift—and angler #1 was patient enough to listen. Angler #2 may have never been offered the same schooling, or may not have been wearing his listening ears that day in class. Let’s try to hold a refresher course OK? The final exam is only a few months away. By the way, you can take the practice exam as often as you wish!
Drag is rather easy to define, but very difficult to explain. Drag is the force that the current imparts on your line. If permitted, it has a nasty effect on your bait or fly making it dodge, dive, slide and rise unnaturally in the water. Most of the aquatic creatures selected as dinner by fish are at the mercy of the current…either by choice or destiny. This means that most foodstuffs are tumbling along with the current—not swimming against it, not gliding crosscurrent, not shooting to the surface. Of course there are examples like minnows and hatching insects but we are talking in general terms here. The vast majorities of fall and winter offerings have been dislodged from the bottom and are swept downstream with the current. Eggs, nymphs, stunned minnows, and larva all fit this category. Since these are the things we most commonly imitate, we need to present them in a natural way.
Imagine if you will (or do it for real) standing on the bank armed with a flyrod. Spooled on your reel is a brand new hot pink WFF fly line minus the leader. In front of you is a deep, rather swift run. You cast straight out and lift your rod tip to eye level and leave it there. What happens to the fly line? It catches the current and swings down below you with a slight belly; eventually the tip will whip across the surface until the entire line is hanging straight downstream. That is drag! The same thing would happen underwater on a vertical plane.
Now repeat the same scenario but add a leader with a tuft of bright yarn to imitate your fly. Now what happens? Well the fly line will take the same course and the leader and fly will follow—but at an exaggerated rate! In addition, the leader will be influenced by any subtle interference in the current, and that will be transmitted to the fly. Again, the rig will behave the same way underwater on a vertical plane. Do you think that looks even remotely natural? Of course not…and neither do the fish.
In order to pass the exam you will need to devise a way to counteract, or adjust, so that the current cannot enact its force on your line and leader. You need to trick the water, to overcompensate, so your bait or fly is tumbling downstream at the same rate as the current it is running in.
Let me toss a few more factors into this equation. First, the water at the streambed and tight against the bank will always be slower than the water at the surface. The difference is greater where the water is running deep over a rough bottom. Second, the water around obstructions will be slowed considerably—both immediately in front of and immediately behind the obstruction. Third, the water velocity will increase anywhere the channel is narrowed, or bottlenecked. But somewhere just downstream of the bottleneck the stream will widen and a pocket or eddy will form to one or both sides of the current. Last, somewhere near any of the above-mentioned structures (streambed, stream bank, obstruction or bottleneck) you will find two currents of differing speeds contacting each other. We call these seams.
Factors one through four create very favorable habitat for migrant salmonids. Toss in a deep hole and its tailout and you have six of the hottest places to wet a line for salmon and steelhead. More specifically, the seams created by these structures offer the habitat that trout and salmon seek as they migrate upstream. Call them resting spots or lies. They offer reduced flows where the fish can sit a spell and recover some energy. These are also the places where the fish have time to visualize what is drifting by them. This is where they will feed or attack so these are the places you want to fish. But you better drift it au natural!
Okay, so how do we do that? Well, in theory it is simple. Cast upstream with only enough weight to overcome the current, toss in a few upstream mends (if fly fishing) so the line does not belly downstream, then lift the slack line off the water and follow the path with your rod tip held high. Oh yeah, and you need to be able to detect the strike. Easy? Yeah...right. Well, “good things come to those who wait,” and “practice makes perfect.” The hard part is doing it enough that you begin to see and feel what I have been discussing.
For starters, begin in rather shallow water using a very visible fly. This is just a study session so we are not actually fishing yet. Rig up and make a cast. Watch your fly. How is it behaving? It is riding way up in the water column? Is it swinging diagonally across the current? What? It is doing both! DRAG! Ohh, now its stuck on the bottom. TOO MUCH WEIGHT! So take off some weight and cast a bit farther upstream. Not getting stuck but it is swinging again? Well are you getting the slack off the water? Didn’t think so. Try again. Okay, better this time, it’s not swinging until it gets past you. Forgot to follow the drift with your rod eh? Try again. VERY GOOD! The fly just bounced along the bottom until it got too far downstream to control. PERFECT! Now you are ready to move to deeper water that is holding some fish.
The method will remain the same—you will just need to compensate by adding or subtracting weight to suit the depth and flow. A longer or shorter cast may be in order. And if that line ever stops or jumps SET THE HOOK ‘cause you just got bit! Yep, it may be a rock but better to be safe than sorry. In time you will be able to read what your fly or bait is dong just by watching your line…in time. Unfortunately that is the best I can do. There are no short courses in overcoming drag. Dead drifting is almost an art form and it takes time to learn all the variables. But with each new piece of water, and with each fish hooked, you will become that much more proficient. Before you know it you will be racing to the water with the confidence of an expert!
Tight lines and I hope to see you out there. Good luck on the final!
ANOTHER ADDITION HAS BEEN MADE TO THIS ARTICLE FOR THE FLY ANGLERS - MENDING
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