Fly presentation and drag-free drift

Make friends with slack to fight the evil forces of drag. All about achieving the zen that is drag-free drift.

Inside this lesson

• In the beginning...a parable on Drift
• It's all about drag-free drift
• Recoginizing drag
• What does drag look like?
• How and why does drag happen?
• Is drag on your fly always bad?
• Techniques for achieving drag-free drift
• The importance of line management
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Bringing it all together

In the beginning...

In the beginning...there was DRIFT.

All was right in the world. Things moved at their own speed. Some fast, some slow.

All beings were connected to a central vibration, while acting of their own accord. FLOW was ever-present.

Playful ANGLERS roamed the land, frolicking with their fellow creatures, using rod and line.

Until the day one angler crossed an invisible barrier, and began to assert dominance over his fellow creatures. This angler started keeping score. And their paradise was forever changed.

A mighty disturbance crossed the land, bringing forth a strong force of disruption from flow. The world heralded the dark coming of wicked and vexatious DRAG.

Drag pulled everything false out of the flow, and flung the reality of their artifice back at the anglers. It showed the puppet strings, the falsity of even child-like endeavors to fool nature. Nature could no longer be fooled, even in fun. Lo, the anglers were sad.

After many years of frustration and question, one angler gave up. There was no hope. They threw it all away.

But all was not lost, because in throwing it all away they discovered SLACK. For the first time, the angler could cast and evade drag. It took a couple whiles to dial in just how much slack to apply, but for some reason just enough slack fooled drag, and allowed them to touch the flow that once was, and sometimes fool nature's swimming creatures.

This, cousin of flow, the angler named DRIFT. They began to spread the news of DRAG-FREE DRIFT to all who would listen, and see the wake-free flies floating along as if untethered.

They roamed the land, casting and telling their tale, to try and help all reach the exalted state experienced by anglers everywhere before the fall.

It's all about drag-free drift

To paraphrase football coach Red Sanders, In fly fishing, presentation isn't everything. It's the only thing.

It's not just about having the right gear or the perfect fly. It's about how you deliver that fly to the fish. If I could boil the entire Technique pillar down to one single concept to build skills around, it would be this one: drag-free drift.

If I could boil the entire Technique pillar down to one single concept to build skills around, it would be this one: drag-free drift.

Presentation is the direct interface we have between the fly and the fish. And drag-free drift is how, when fishing dry flies and nymphs, we try and make a realistic-enough imitation of nature for that fly to fool that fish.

Some anglers are especially interested in matching the hatch, and finding the right fly. Some are interested in crisp, long casts with perfect loops.

You don't need either of those to catch fish.

Sure, they help. But, what you do need, 90% of the time, is to achieve drag-free drift.

What does "the fly is fishing" mean?

There's a linguistically complex thing anglers say that can help you wrap your head around this broad concept of drag-free drift a bit. It's "the fly is fishing."

"Wait," your brain stops you, to think out loud. "The fly isn't fishing. I'm the one that's fishing. Me and my body." Yes, dear brain, that's true. But when your fly is dragging, or moving unnaturally in the water, it's not fishing. When it's just floating along, in a manner that fish will see as neutral and natural, it is.

This is the case whether you're dry fly fishing or nymphing or stripping streamers or swinging for steelhead. Sometimes that's a "dead drift" (e.g. zero drag) and sometimes that's artificial drag to initiate movement, like stripping a fly, or swinging a fly. If your fly isn't moving in the right manner, you're not going to be as effective at enticing a fish.

Achieving a drag-free drift is essential for fooling fish into thinking your fly is a natural insect, or other food item, if you're fishing a dead-drift streamer. Here's why it matters:

• Natural appearance: Fish are used to seeing food items (e.g. bugs) drift naturally with the current.
• Reduced suspicion: An unnatural drift alerts fish to the presence of something not like the others
• Increased strike likelihood: A drag-free drift coaxes the fish into trusting the food source.

Drag-free drift is our fly moving in a state of weightlessness, as if it's not attached to that piece of plastic running all the way back to a crafty(-ish) angler.

In our little parable above, we invented the arch-nemesis DRAG. Fly anglers have a bunch of different cryptonyms for our other arch-nemesis THE WIND (origin story to come) to avoid invoking it (the W, Walter, Uncle Gusty & Aunt Breezy), so why not personify drag-free drift? What would that Drag-Free Drifter be?

For some reason I'm imagining Wilford Brimley's face with his big mustache, just floating along out there, happy as, the Drag-Free Drifter, driftin' away.

(n.b. If you have any similar unhinged visions of who the Drag-free Drifter might be, leave a note in the comments.)

Recognizing drag

Just like unconscious bias, there's no way to eliminate drag. It will always be there. But the first step toward doing something about it is recognizing it happens.

What does drag look like?

If your rod tip is wiggling and the fly looks like its waterskiing (or wakeboarding, whichever you prefer), it's pretty clear your fly is dragging.

When the drag might be more subtle, there are a few signs you can look to: