Drifting Weighted Flies
On this board, and others, there’s been quite a bit of discussion about methods of fishing Clousers, jigs, and other weighted flies. There are numerous techniques, and a thoughtful fisher will use many of them, depending upon water conditions, the target species, the behavior of the bait, and other factors. Here are my thoughts on one method, sometimes the most successful and often the most difficult to achieve – the dead drift.
Most of my experience in this kind of fishing has been in fresh water, but over the last few years, since I moved to Rhode Island, I've applied those techniques successfully in the salt, particularly in moving water like the Narrow River, Quonny and the Charlestown Breachway .
What do I mean by “Dead Drift, and Why Use It”?
“Dead Drift” is simply a method of presenting the fly so that it drifts naturally in the current stream. In fishing dry flies, we think of “drag free float” and that is what I am trying to accomplish sub surface dead drifting weighted flies. The method imitates the movement of the natural bait. That’s easy enough to visualize in terms of a mayfly hatch, with the duns floating in the current on the surface. But shrimp, scud, caddis larva and pupa, and many mayfly nymphs behave the same way, subsurface, at various stages of their development. And bait fish are most often seen swimming slowly, or holding, in the current.
Stripping a weighted fly through the water often will draw strikes, and may imitate the motion of frightened or injured bait. But in many instances the drag free subsurface drift will draw strikes when other techniques fail. I’ve done quite a bit of fishing for steelhead in the Lake Erie tributaries, and while streamers and spey flies are sometimes effective, a weighted nymph fished with a natural drift close to the bottom is almost always effective and some times the only way to connect.
Tackle
Rod and line weight will depend on where you are fishing and what the target is. As a general rule, for dead drifting weighted flies, the longer the rod the better, because the longer the rod the better the line control, and line control is key in this technique. Local conditions will also dictate the type of line – full sink, sink tip, intermediate, or floating. Most of my experience is with floating lines and that is what I will address in this thread.
Weighting the Fly
I like Clouser type flies because they can be fished in a variety of ways and it’s easy to determine how much weight has been added – you can’t do that with lead wraps under the rest of the body. I also use bead heads and cone heads, and I add split shot to the leader when I want more weight. When I learned to tie, the only common method of weighting flies was to wrap lead around the shank, and I still use that method for some of my fresh water nymphs – partially because the theory (I don’t know whether it is fact) is that flies weighted that way drift more naturally than those that are front weighted, but primarily because I like to follow some traditions.
Presentation
There’s a very good session in progress on the “Floating Lines” board (under “What am I Missing”) about how to dead drift a weighted fly. The precise technique will depend upon water conditions, but here are my generalities:
1. Look at the water and consider how you would position yourself, and cast and handle the line, to achieve a drag free drift with a dry fly. Drag on the fly is caused by drag on the leader and fly line, and the principle is the same for flies at any level of the water column.
2. If you can get directly down stream of the intended drift, do so and cast upstream, with a tuck cast, well above the target. Retrieve the line fast enough to keep slack off the water without moving the fly. This method enables you to avoid casting across competing currents. The line may pass over the target fish, but I have not found that spooking fish with upstream nymphing tactics is a significant problem, except under very special circumstances.
3. If you can’t get directly downstream from the run, try working from upstream of your target. Get the fly in the water well short of the target with a tuck cast, and pay out your fly line in loose “S” curves. This technique will allow the fly to sink and drift over your target in a natural fashion.
4. Standing directly up or down stream of the run usually is a pipe dream, and so in most instances you will be casting across the current, and often across several competing currents and perhaps a back eddy, to reach your target. This is the most difficult position from which to achieve a drag free drift, and the situation being addressed on the “Floating Lines” board. When I am in this position, I try to cast quartering upstream with a reach cast, and to mend as the line drifts down. Much easier said than done, but each attempt is practice for the next.
5. I sometimes find myself in a position where it is impossible for someone with my skill level and experience to obtain a drag free drift. But I try. Fishing for Lake Erie steelhead it’s great to get a ten or twenty foot drift but sometimes all that I can manage is to get the fly down to the fish and hope for a foot or so of reasonably good drift.
Adding Weight
Sometimes the fish are taking food fairly high up in the water column and it is not important to get the fly near the bottom, but I always assume that the closer to the bottom, the better. That means adding weight (or using a sinking or sink tip line). If I’m looking for a natural, dead drift presentation, I add split shot well above the fly. For example, my Steelhead nymphing rig leaves the tag end of the tippet long, with an overhand knot in it, and I clinch the split shot to that tag. I tie a nymph (usually and egg fly or sucker spawn) to the end of the tippet, and hang more tippet and another fly from that one – so that the split shot is well above (on the drift, well ahead) of the flies.
There’s got to be a balance between the amount of weight and the action of the fly. Too much weight and the fly will sink like a stone. Not enough weight and the fly won’t get down fast enough.
It’s also possible to add weight by working a length of LC 13 lead core line into the leader with a loop to loop connection. I find that rig tough to cast, but I’m working on it.
Working the Water Column
In the last section I noted that I try to drift the fly as close to the bottom as possible.That method works for me, but we shouldn't assume that the fish will take a presentation only on the bottom or the top. Bait is found everywhere in the water column, and we all have seen fish hanging on the bottom but drifting up to take bait floating above them. Drifting a cast of three unweighted flies, perhaps with a split shot to sink the tailing (furthest from the line) fly, is an effective way to explore levels of the water column.
Finishing Off the Drift:
Whether or not your presentation has resulted in a drag free drift, that portion of your float will come to an end. Don't be in a rush to cast again. Let the fly swing, and retrieve it against the current. Vary the point at which you begin the retrieve, and the length and speed of the strips in the retrieve. You may induce a fish to strike the moving fly, and in fact you may be imitating the action of a frightened bait fish or emerging nymph. Also, your weighted fly will have passed through the entire water column, on the way down as you begin the float and on the way up as you retrieve.
Floats
We fly fishermen like to call them “strike indicators,” but many of them really are floats. Strike indicators are very useful in nymph fishing and I rely on them to pick up subtle strikes, during the drift, that I might otherwise have missed. Some indicators are just that, a bit of fluff or roll on or paste on colored foam, but the most popular ones actually are floats. They are very effective in maintaining weighted flies at a specific depth, and they also assist in getting a drag free drift – if the float isn’t dragging, the fly isn’t either. Some fly fishermen disdain the use of artificial aids, even non-float strike indicators, but I’m not there yet.
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