(^66) FLYLIFE
avoiding an obstacle or avoiding lin-
ing a fish. Learn it and apply it.
The next move to learn is a com-
plete aerial mend and this is used to
deal with casting across a seam of
faster (or slower) moving water. In the
reach we take the rod out to the side
and leave it there and we follow the
line on the water with the rod tip as
it moves. To create a full aerial mend,
after loop formation we move the rod
tip to one side and then we move it
back again and this creates the mend
layout shape.
Make the move very soon after
loop formation and the mend will be
positioned out towards the fly; make
the move late before the line touches
down, and the mend will be close to
the rod tip. The size and position of
the mend is determined by the time,
speed, shape and distance of the rod-
tip movement. The line will essentially
do what the tip of the rod does — move
it out and move it back before the line
touches down. Do it quickly, do it slow-
ly, do it wide and do it shallow and you
will get different layout shapes.
We can also create line layout
shapes through using trajectory, as
well as underpowered and overpow-
ered casts. A deliberately thrown tail-
ing loop or a wide open loop that
almost collapses back on itself kills
line speed and prevents a leader from
straightening.
NOT JUST TROUT
My single biggest lesson in drag man-
agement came while fishing for bar-
ramundi in the Northern Territory on
the Daly River. The fish were stacked
up in an eddy created by a combina-
tion of a rock bar and a snag, hard
against the bank, that the current was
hitting with great force. But with a
boat anchored in mid-stream you had
to cast across a ripping out-going tidal
flow and you had to get your fly deep
in the murky water in the eddy. But
of course the belly of intermediate-
density line sinking across the flow
whipped the fly out of the zone before
it had sunk 30 cm.
With the intermediate line, an on-
the-water mend was not possible, so
the required line shape had to be
created in the air. A reach mend was
one option but it didn’t give sufficient
time; a big aerial mend was another
but it had to be a big upstream curve
in the entire line. The best option was
a curve cast that put the fly in the
zone with a big belly of curving line
lying upstream. By the time the line
had straightened, the fly was more
than a metre deep, and every time
you got it right you got a bite. FL
Even sooty grunters in the Burdekin River can demand some clever mending to present the fly naturally and at the required depth.
DRAG APPLIES RIGHT ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF FLY FISHING,
ON ALMOST EVERY SPECIES...
Use high-floating, cleaned and
dressed lines.
Lines that carry a lot of weight
forward do not mend as well as lines
with a long front taper.
Use shorter drifts; improve your
accuracy.
Slower rods mend better and longer
rods mend better.
Make mends early and often.
Learn to break the surface tension
before mending. To do this, wiggle
the line as you lift it.
Practise and use targets for this.
Use longer finer tippets and a
casting stroke and leader design that
won’t fully unroll, to give you extra
time for a drag-free drift.
A great example of this is the basic
Tongariro leader, which is a simple
piece of straight through tippet from
fly-line to fly.
TIPS FOR BETTER
MENDING
LEADER TIPS FOR
REDUCING DRAG
Daly River barra, undone by a curve cast.
A Case of the Mends... continued
lu
(lu)
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