Tips and Techniques: Cast To Ledges

Since we are not talking about the typical terrestrial, a hopper, where do most of them come from? They literally come raining down from tree branches that hang pout over the river. In our ON STREAM STRATEGY Terrestrial class, when our first student catches or raises a fish, we have the entire class wade to the spot where the fish rose. When we tell them to do it, they look at us like we were crazy. But once they get there and we tell them to look up over their head at the tree canopy, they begin to understand what we are trying to teach them.

Casting a big bushy fly like The Madam has both its good points and its bad points. On the plus side, a less than perfect cast and presentation can is often is a good thing. A big beattle falling from an over hanging branch doesn’t land delicately on the water. It lands with a resounding splat and splash. This great news for beginners! That poor cast just became a great on. On the downside, a big wind resistant fly requires a modification to your typical casting stroke. Even further on the downside is the preferred casting locations. Prime places mean more than your share of lost flies.

When you find that location where in one cast you can “Cast to the Ledges, The Edges, and Up Under the Bushes” Your Mid-West terrestrial time will be a season to remember.