Techniques

Classic drag-free upstream dry-fly presentation.

Dry fly presented downstream or down-and-across.

Dry fly fished across current, sometimes waked.

Minimal movement, often on smooth water.

Fly deliberately moved or waked on surface.

Ant, beetle, hopper and similar patterns.

Fishing likely lies without visible rises.

Patterns sit in or just under the surface film.

Buoyant dry supports a subsurface nymph.

Fishing tiny flies with total accuracy during dense summer caenis hatches.

Classic subsurface wet-fly fishing.

Traditional down-and-across wet-fly swing.

Multiple unweighted or lightly dressed wet flies.

Lifted at the end of drift to trigger takes.

North-country spider and soft-hackle methods.

Traditional boat or drift stillwater method.

Four hundred years of Yorkshire common sense: sparse soft-hackle wets fished short-line across and down.

Suspended nymphs beneath yarn or buoyant indicator.

Direct-contact nymphing without a floating indicator.

Dry fly used as both attractor and indicator.

Short-range, heavy, high-contact nymphing.

Long leader, fine tippet, light contact at range.

Very long leader, technical long-range contact style.

Catch-all for modern contact nymph methods.

Traditional English nymphing associated with G. E. M. Skues.

Streamer actively retrieved in strips.

Foundation guide to fishing streamers in rivers — pools, undercut banks, structure, current seams.

Searching large stillwaters for trout with streamers — wind lanes, points, drop-offs.

Streamer swung across current.

Streamer drifted naturally like prey or fry.

Large streamers for pike — 8–10 weight tackle, wire traces, weed lines, safe handling.

Imitating fleeing fry with small streamers to target big trout hunting shoals in early autumn.

Working big dark streamers after dark for large, piscivorous river brown trout.

Core across-and-down salmonid swing method.

Classic floating-line presentation for fish near surface.

Classic low-light or night wet-fly sea-trout approach.

Surface disturbance used to provoke takes.

Swinging tube flies on singles or trebles.

Small singles, doubles, or light tubes fished on or just beneath the surface.

Sink-tips or sinking shooting heads to reach fish in cold, deep, or heavy water.

Small fly hitched with a leader half-hitch to wake across the surface — classic summer grilse method.

Sunray Shadow or similar mobile fly stripped fast across or through a pool in low, warm water.

Muddlers, wake flies, or buoyant tubes creating a night-time surface wake.

Larger tubes, snakes, or lures on an intermediate or sinking line when fish won't rise to the surface.

Finding a salmon's taking lie by pool structure and water height, not by where food collects.

Suspended buzzer or midge pupae rig.

Buoyant Booby fished on a sinking line, near-static or short-pulled near the bottom.

Traditional or modern lure pulling.

Dry-fly fishing on stillwaters.

Buzzers, bloodworm, damsel, or egg patterns suspended beneath an indicator — a beginner-friendly stillwater method.

Fishing a static team of buzzers at a fixed depth from an anchored boat.

Long-leader grayling method on clear glides and runs.

Cold-water nymphing approach for winter grayling.

Small dries for rising grayling — subtle rise forms and downstream presentation for difficult fish.

Short-line, weighted approach for fast runs and deeper seams.

Buoyant dry supporting a single nymph beneath it — prospects mixed water while keeping a surface-take chance alive.

Soft-hackled flies fished upstream, across, or on a controlled swing — sparse hatches and fish feeding just under the surface.

A more accessible alternative to French or Czech nymphing.

Short, accurate presentations into fast pockets, seams, and cushions behind rocks.

Traditional Irish team-of-wets boat method.

Fly dapped on the surface with little line on the water.

Dapping a duckfly imitation on a blow-line ahead of the mayfly on Irish limestone loughs.

Japanese fixed-line fly-fishing system.

Short, accurate fixed-line fishing beneath trees and between boulders.

Dead-drift, hold, pulse, swing, and lift presentations for Japanese-style flies.

Direct-contact nymph fishing with a long reel-less rod.

Long fixed-line rods, fine lines, and weighted precision — a Japanese stream tradition, not traditionally fly-only.

Traditional Italian fixed-line fly fishing of the Sesia valley — an independent tradition, not a tenkara variant.

Precise short drifts for grayling in seams, glides, and winter runs — a modern application of fixed-line tackle.

Extending fixed-line control without pretending reach is unlimited.

Change the presentation before changing the pattern — a training exercise, not a universal rule.

Spotting fish and casting to sighted targets.

Boat-control skill — slows and steadies a drift so loch-style and nymph presentations stay in contact.

Pools, riffles, glides, seams, pocket water, and undercut banks — identifying lies from depth, current, and structure.

Windward shores, drop-offs, weed beds, points, bays, inflows, and wind lanes.

Stealth, observation, and positioning before the first cast — silhouette, vibration, shadow, and bank angle.

Upstream, downstream, stack, and aerial mends and what each does to fly speed.

Combining casting angle, leader layout, rod-tip movement, and mending to keep a dry fly or nymph travelling naturally.

Reach, curve, pile, parachute, and tuck casts as solutions to specific current and depth problems.

When slack creates a natural drift and when contact is required to detect a take — dry flies, indicators, tight-line nymphs, and swung flies.

Fly weight, leader length, line density, casting angle, countdown, and retrieve speed to place the fly in the correct layer.

How current, mends, rod position, retrieve, and casting angle affect a dry fly, nymph, wet fly, or streamer.

Reading the fly, leader, indicator, line, and fish — obvious pulls, subtle pauses, and sighted-fish behaviour.

Lifting into a dry-fly take, tightening into a swung fly, strip-setting streamers, and delaying for dapping or surface lures.

Preventing coils and tangles, organising loose line while wading or boat fishing, and preparing line before casting at a moving fish.

Reach casts, slack, high rod positions, and repositioning when several currents act on the line and leader.

Upstream, across, or downstream — sun, wind, current, background cover, and the likely direction of a hooked fish.

Casting plane, loop shape, leader, and casting direction — including safe handling of weighted flies.

Pausing flies beneath the rod at the end of a retrieve or drift — stillwater nymphs, lures, and boat fishing.

Setting up a productive drift, angle to the wind, working a shoreline or contour, and coordinating two anglers.

Wading only when it improves angle or reach — disturbance, safe routes, and not walking through unfished water.

Side strain, changing angles, using current intelligently, and landing fish efficiently without exhausting them.

Changing direction and delivering a fly with no backcast room, the foundation double-handed cast.

Wading technique and equipment for staying safe in current, as distinct from wading for presentation.

The four stages of a spate: rising, peak, falling and coloured, falling and clearing, and what each means for where fish lie and what to fish.

Rod licences, permits, close seasons, beat rules, salmon release rules and night fishing: what to check before you fish in the UK and Ireland.

Fishing a low, bright, warm river: the temperature limits, the cool hours, where fish hold, a stealthy approach and fine, small flies.

Landing, unhooking, photographing and reviving a fish so it survives, and how water temperature changes the odds.

Fishing sedge and caddis on rivers: the grannom, the evening sedge, the ascending pupa, the skated adult, sizes, leaders and the temperature limits.

Fishing for sea trout in daylight: the estuary on the tide, a coloured river in spring and autumn, finnock, the Irish loughs and the Cantabrian reo, with tackle, flies, tide safety and the rules.

Winter pike on the fly in big reservoirs: where fish lie, the line for each depth, a slow retrieve, the wire trace, boat and handling rules, and safety.

Choosing a first fly rod and line: start with a floating line, match rod weight to the water you fish most, and why a suitable cheap rod beats an unsuitable expensive one.

Learning the overhead fly cast: the lift, back stop, pause, forward stroke and stop, how to practise on grass, the faults to fix first, and Fly Cast and casting instructors.

Buoyant point fly with nymphs on droppers.

Two or three nymphs on droppers, figure-of-eight retrieve or drift, fished with the hang.

Controlling point and dropper flies, spacing, and how one fly affects the depth and movement of the others.

Choosing line density and using the countdown to control depth on stillwaters.

How butt, taper and tippet work together to transfer casting energy through to the fly.

Nylon vs fluorocarbon, diameter vs breaking strain, and matching tippet to the fly and the fish.

Rigging a nymph beneath a buoyant dry fly — dropper length, attachment point and strike detection.

Constructing a safe two- or three-fly leader — spacing, knots, fly order and avoiding a collapsed cast.

Ready-to-use leader lengths and spacing for buzzers, washing line, pulling lures, dries and the indicator.

Short, powerful leaders built to turn over bulky flies, including wire and bite tippet for pike.

The knots a fly angler needs: line to leader, leader to tippet, fly to tippet, a loop for streamers, a dropper and a wire trace.

X size to millimetres and pounds, hook size to tippet, the 60/20/20 split, and starting points for dry fly, nymph, Euro nymphing and streamers.

Stalking visible carp in the margins and dropping a single fly on the feeding line.

Heavy single nymph held on the gravel through seams and runs.

Walk-and-wade dry and small-nymph fishing for makou, chub, dace and the stream barbs.