Dress Your Fly For Success

Presenting a fly fishing fly is all about making your offering look as natural as possible. This includes a drag free drift properly placed in the water. 

But it also includes the correct preparation of your fishing fly to make it look as realistic as possible.

If you’re anything like me, you have a couple fly boxes packed full of flies, ready for use in any given situation. The last thing in the world I want is to be on the river and not have the bug the trout are keying on. The downside to this approach is that the bugs get matted down in the fly box.

Bring those bugs back to life.

Toothpicks.

Most of us carry around tooth picks for our indicators. Put them to use on your dry flies. Fluff up the fly working the hackle, wings and tail. By fluffing up the fly, you’ll get a more natural imitation. 

Whether it’s a  caddis, pmd, adams, or hopper…..in all likelihood, if it’s a dry fly that’s been in your box a bit, they’ll need some love.

Floatant.

Floatant is key here, too. Less is more folks, we all know it. Put a little on you thumb and rub you thumb and forefinger together. Now apply it to the hackle or foam. Do not use floatant with CDC flies. It will have the opposite effect.

Be Patient.

Now we all get super excited after we catch a fish and want to get that magic bug back in the water as quick as possible. Be patient. Check the condition of the bug. Do you need to re-dress it? Is it swamped? Give it a few bounces in your dry floatant. You’ll be glad you did. 

Also check the sharpness of the hook. At RiverBum, we use Daiichi chemically sharpened hooks. Even these premium hooks will eventually dull after enough fish, rocks, and trees are hooked into.

A well dressed fly is good for any occasion.

Tight Lines and Screaming Drags.