Making the cast.

 The two most important factors in catching fish on a consistent basis are your casting skills and the flies you use (more on flies later). If you can't consistently float a fly, drag free, down a fish's two inch wide feeding lane, you just aren't going to catch many fish. Last week I had occasion to watch two very good casters throwing tight looped 85 foot casts, presumably at rising fish. Actually stopped and watched the first one for a few minutes he was that awesome.  Both fishermen were fishing downstream from me about a hundred yards,  it was a little foggy the second night and I was otherwise occupied casting at the fish rising in front of me but you notice things and I noticed the first night angler hook (and lose) a fish,  Didn't see the second night angler catch anything.

Simply stated, dry fly fishing success requires accuracy far more than distance. If you want to improve your fish catching you first need to improve your casting.  How? For starters, and I'm serious here, take one of your weight forward lines, lay it out on the ground, measure the first fifty feet and cut off the rest of the running line. Attach the shortened line to your backing. By limiting your casting distance you have made one major step in increasing your chances of catching fish.

Now practice. "But I already know how to cast".  Really? Can you consistently land a fly three feet upstream of a fish and float it drag free down his feeding lane?  At 20 feet? At 40 feet?  At 60 feet?  Can you throw upstream over a rising fish and land only the fly and tippet  above the fish or curl the fly left or right so as to avoid "lining" the fish altogether? Again at 20, 40 and 60 feet?  There is a rock even with you in the river and the current is forming a vee with slack water in the middle. Can you float a fly along the near edge of the vee? How about floating it along the far side edge of the vee across the slack water without drag?  Can you make these casts on a calm day? On one with light and variable wind? How about if it's gusting out of the north at ten to twenty?

The nice part about casting practice is you can do it while you are fishing.  Call it blind casting or prospecting, it might catch you a fish or two when none are rising and over time it will sure improve your fishing. And, if you ever meet someone who can consistently perform all of the casts mentioned in paragraph three above, give me his name, I'd like to meet him.