[yankees12]

Well, I found this beautful waterfall spot at my local and only trout stream (for now ) and I saw a bunch of rises. It was some type of elongated black dry fly, I wasnt really sure what it was. I know what a caddis, mayfly and stone flies are and it wasnt any of those. I picked a black gnat pattern because it was my only dry that resemble this unknown insect. The problem came when I was casting the size 16 and placed it on the surface of the water, I would always lose track of where it was. There was so much other stuff on the stream I could not tell where my fly was. Does any one have any solutions to this problem?

[plland]

"elongated black dry fly" do you mean the actual insect? Perhaps a wasp?

I'll let the more knowledgable flyfishers here answer your other question. As my signature would suggest, I don't use dry flies too often.

[fyshstykr]

Can't help you on the bug I.D.

As far as losing sight of your fly though, this is one of those situations(more commonplace the older I get) where you have to guesstimate where your fly is, and if you see a rise in close proximity 'gently raise your rod' to give it a check and see if it was your bug they ate.
Or use a larger fly for a locator with the smaller fly as a dropper, and use the same principle.

[Frank Whiton]

Hi yankees12,

Losing sight of your dry fly is not uncommon. Especially if you are using small flies. That was one of the problems Wulff was trying to solve with his Wulff series of flies.

Fyshstykr has given you a very good technique. You need to know about how far the fly is beyond the end of the fly line. You have to follow the end or your fly line and an imaginary spot about where your fly would be. If you see a rise or surface splash, do a soft set. Many times in moving water the fish will hook its self. This system is flawed with all kinds of problems but I have to do it this way do to my vision. Unless I am using a big fly I just can't see it.

Frank