On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 16:01:49 -0800, Karl S Treecatcher wrote:

I've been visiting the lakes and ponds around Yakima Washington since
receiving a fly rod last year for my birthday. One thing that I've been
wondering about is this: When the water is glassy-smooth and nothing has
jumped for a few hours, is it even worth the effort to use a dry fly? If
the fish aren't eating real flies, can they be induced to rise to a fake
one? I've yet to figure out how to get a wet fly out beyond about twice
the length of my fishing rod, unless I use a spin-cast rod and a
water-filled bobber... Not exactly what I want to do right now.
Meanwhile, the family of campers at the other end of the lake are using
wads of scented "power bait" and catching trout, which at least proves
there are fish in the lake after all!

First off, IMHO, powerbait is the devil's snot!

Secondly, why do you find it easier to cast dry flies than wets? I
generally fish 3 dries, much the same way that I would fish wets. I
know that on some waters that is considered cheating, because they
have the one fly rule, but dries don't have to be fished singly.

Third, have you considered fishing with nymphs or buzzers? 80% of a
trout's diet comes from the lake/river bed. Chances are that the trout
will not be feeding on the surface, and although you might be able to
tempt the occasional fish to the surface with an appealing dry, I
would go with a subsurface pattern. Look for bow waves that might
indicate trout cruising and feeding a few feet below the surface...
should be easy when there's no ripple.

Learn a bit about the life cycles of aquatic insects, and try a
pattern that matches the indigenous life in your locale. If you can't
be arsed getting into entomology, and lets face it, it's not the most
exciting subject, go with tried and tested patterns, like gold ribbed
hare's ears, pheasant tail nymphs or a black buzzer with red wingbuds.
The 'bows over here just LOVE Montana nymphs, btw!

Put a big heavy fly on the point and a lighter patterns on the
dropper(s). retrieve with a slow fig of 8, with occasional sporadic
jerks. Keep it slow and less jerky if you opt for buzzers.

Failing that, you could try annoying the hell out of them with a lure.

Fourthly... you don't need to cast to the horizon to be able to cover
fish with your fly.

If you really must have top of the water action in a flat calm, I'd
recommend that you keep your leader well de-greased and use emerger
patterns. It's less likely that terrestrial insects will get blown
onto the water during calm conditions.

That said, many trout find a big daddy long legs irresistible during
the late British summers, no matter what the conditions. However trout
might believe in your emerger, because they represent larval and pupal
stages of insects that have swam to the surface. However, if the fish
aren't rising at all, I would say that you'd be better off going deep.

I'm the first to admit that I haven't got the first idea about the
indigenous insect life in N. America, but patterns like shuttlecocks,
bob's bits, shipman's buzzers or anything that represents a failed
emerging dun do well in the UK.

Finally, if what you're saying is that you get tangles when fishing
more than one fly, I would recommend a few casting lessons or more
practice. If you're getting tangles when there's no wind, then you
really need to put some work into your casting.

Also worth considering... most fly rods work most effectively when
your working with the length of your rod length X3 worth of line out.
If, as you say, you are only working with twice a rod's length of
line, your problem could be that you don't have enough line out to
load your rod properly. IMO, you'll find the best online advice on
casting at www.sexyloops.com Check it out.

Now for the disclaimer... having tried to explore the "bottle half
full/empty" theory with Wolfgang, I'm most likely to be talking out of
my arse here. Caveat emptor!

HTH

John

http://groups.msn.com/scottishflyfisher