another episode of Rio's how-to videos today we're gonna look at how to fish a

drive like downstream in a river now you might ask why would you fish a drive

light downstream well the reason is very very simple if you are above the fish

and the fish is lying here the first thing the fish will see if you do right

is your fly then your leader on any fly line so fishing a dry fly from above a

fish down to a fish is a very good technique if you can find an obliging

fish what I like to set up myself when I'm dry fly fishing here is I've got on

the real perception I like this line for dry flies nice turn over easy casting

line throws all sides of dry flies from 12 to 22 even to eights and terrestrials

and then on the downstream dry fly you'll get a lot more aggressive grab so

I like to fish a stronger leader than normal that's why I fish at Powerflex

Plus this is a powerful X plus leader which is a bit stronger than our regular

leaders so I always fish that with my downstream Drive flies this is a nine

foot one I've got on there but I always lengthen it because I want lots of slack

and you'll see why in a minute so I add on another three to four feet

of perfect plus tip it and that's my rig the most important thing number one rule

in dry fly fishing with its upstream or downstream is do not get drag drag is

when you're dry fly adrift at a different speed to the current one clue

as you watch the bubbles or flotsam and jetsam floating down and you try and see

your fly parallel and drifting at the same speed when you fish a dry fly

downstream you can have a problem because when you cast a line downstream

you land with a straight tight line the fly lands and immediately fly States to

wait and skate on the surface there is no way a fish is going to take that that

is so unnatural so a downstream drier has problems a tight line creates drag

bad word is drag to get a fly to drift naturally when you fish downstream you

have to give it slack there's a number of ways of gear

it let's see what happens I give it slack cast slack that dry fly just drift

at the same pace of the current naturally down and it'll do that until I

run out of slack as I said there's a number of ways of giving slack you can

drop your rod high and then drop it like this which is a parachute cast when I

drop my rod I'm giving it slack that way making if my fly drift for 10 or 12 feet

you can also cast and do a couple of little shaky Wiggles like that and put

slacking by wiggling it you can do a cast where you drop the fly from a high

like a parachute cast and drop it down so really the key to success with a

dread downstream dry fly is twofold one give it slack when it lands and secondly

you're going to run out of slack so when your fish is rising here don't cast 10

feet above that fish because by the time your fly gets anywhere near the fish

you've run out of slack and it's dragging you need a cast within a foot

or maybe 18 inches of that fish and give it enough slack to pass the fish then

you have the best chance of catching a fish with the downstream dry fly

patience is the name of the game dry fly fishing even though I saw fish rising

five minutes ago when I was setting up I'm not gonna make it cast I want to

know exactly where that fish is so I'm gonna wait for it to rise and when it's

head comes up again I'm gonna take a very cautious approach I gonna make my

cast at least two feet short of the fish and then it's going to drift down the

fish probably won't take it but that's way safer than trying to get your first

cast at the fish and being three inches too long and dragging and having a

leader go over so start short lengthen your line by a foot get a foot closer

linked in there by a few inches get a little bit closer and then nail it and

get three or four a good you're effective drifts over it before you give

up and try doesn't fly oh yeah there's one over there so let's take a look he's

rising close to the bushes so my first cast is always gonna be short little bit

of slack I've dropped my rod the fly is drifting naturally now it's dragging but

I could see in that area where the fish was rising my flow is exact same pace of

the bubbles but I was a foot short deliberately now I'm gonna do it again

with a little bit more line

little slack there is drifting naturally now it's starting to wake or skate or

drag whatever you like term you like bad but oh who cares I haven't scared my

fish now another few more inches of line getting closer and closer to that fish

and the other reason that I want to be long on this one is this right by a tree

and if you get too long you snag the tree and you shake the tree to get the

fly off you'll scare that fish for sure this is a good cutthroat a really

nice-sized song just being really cautious working my way closer and

closer until I can cover that fish that was a fairly good cast that should have

got some interest that's try it again hi rod drop a little bit of slack he's

feeling right in that bubble line look how happy he is yeah there he is

beautiful lay on the floor in the bubble line look at that

that was so epically satisfying this is a nice cutthroat you can tell by the

position where he was tight to the bank in the food laying in the oxygen Lane

but let's see we can get him out here whilst I'm out here so keep the rod low

I'm paying a fish pulling it ups River lots of sponge in the rod and you're

trying to pull the fish upstream of you once you get the fish above you then

it's a really easy matter of just turning the rod and letting it drift

into the net beautiful oh yeah what a gorgeous cut through look at that look

at that for a cut through what a specimen on the downstream Drive like

alright let's get this baby back keep your head in the water upstream never

little back and forth oh just let it swim out your hand that was epic

oh my gosh I love the downstream drive line you can see why it's a technical

way to fish you've got to be really accurate with your cars you've got to

understand the currents go to understand how to give slack but not too much slack

so you don't set the hook and miss it that is why you do the downstream Drive

fire so hopefully you enjoyed this episode as

much as I did it was a great episode of how to Rio is how to fish a dry fly

downstream if you enjoyed it stay tuned you got plenty more episodes on the reel

website on Rios how-to videos thank you ever so much for watching