Hi,
first, you should let the fly drift away from the area where the fish are before picking up for another cast. If you are fishing a stream this will be very simple. Many times you may catch a fish far below the spot that you are convinced that you will, even if the fly sinks as it goes into the sweep at the end of the drift. If the fly is constantly drowning during the drifts as it begins to swing then you may want to bring it to hand and give it a treatment with floatant.
Still water presents a different circumstance for a tidy pick up. Here if avoiding a disturbance if a real issue I slowly draw the fly in toward me using the old finger gathering technique so it moves so slow there is virtually no wake as it moves.
Last; when I was young I sat on the bank of Little Pine Creek in Pennsylvania and watched an elderly man who was fishing dry flies. The man (I learned later when we talked) was from New York State and he used a bamboo rod. He was so smooth when he fished I have always remembered him fishing that morning. I learned a style of picking my fly from the water by watching him and even though this was over thirty years ago I use it still. When he was ready for a pick up, he held his rod tip rather low and with wrist action began to shake the line side to side. As he did this he slowly raised his rod tip and the two motions when combined, (the shaking line and the butt section of the line being raised with the rod tip) allowed him to transmit the movement in the line all the way out to the very tip section of the line. As the line undulates and rises the motion allows it to break the anchoring grip that existed between the fly line and the meniscus of the water. You must think about this as you read and then you should try to remember this and give it a try until you have it working for you. The result that this gentleman produced was obvious to me as I watched him. His line seemingly danced of of the surface of the water. There was no 'slurp', no bubbles, nothing but a clean quiet pickup! I began to emulate his style as I fished that same day and I use this style every time I fish dry flies.
Since I have never seen 'His style' outlined in books I have always thought it something that was his and by using it when I fish I am in a strange way paying homage to an elderly stranger form somewhere up around the Catskills and thereby creating a legacy that he never knew would exist.
Try what I have endeavored to describe here, it isn't hard and once you see how well it works you will adopt it and use it. Sometimes I wonder; if a young man stops and watches me work the line the way I watched the old man, if they do they will become like me the same way that I got to where I am.
Let me know what you think and when you try this please come back to this thread and post your feed back on what I have shared with you. Oh yeah, remember I didn't invent this, we owe it to an elderly gentleman from NY sometime around 1978.
Ard
