Written by Martin Montejano
One of the advantages of tenkara is the ability to “present the fly.” While it may not be a unique concept when it comes to fly fishing in general, tenkara does offer a slightly different approach to the idea.
We wrote about this a little in an article titled “The Tenkara Advantage” and the main concept behind it is that a fixed line rod offers different ways to animate a fly in order to help elicit a strike from a fish. While these different techniques can add a little life to the fly, the one presentation that should not be overlooked is the “Dead Drift.”
What Is A Dead Drift?
The idea behind the dead drift is simple. Let the current move the fly with as little influence from the angler as possible. By “influence” we’re talking about imparted movement, whether it’s large swings of the fly, or subtle deviation from the drift. The idea here is to get the most “natural” looking drift, as if it were a bug caught up in the flows.
How Is It Achieved
With a tenkara rod, getting a dead drift is pretty simple and easy. Being that the angler is utilizing such a long rod and a considerably light line, getting a natural presentation can be as simple as casting to your target location, and letting the flow of water dictate the path in which the fly moves down-current all while suspending the majority of the line off the water. What we want is for the current to have control over the drift, again, with as little influence from the angler as possible.
One thing to note about this, is the more line you have on or in the water, the more influence the current will have on the way the fly drifts. Conversely, the less line in contact with the water, the more influence the line and the actions of the angler will have on the fly. This leads me to the next part of this post…
Things To Consider
When looking to achieve a dead drift, there are a few things to take into account. The length of the line you’re using can play a big role in how the fly tumbles through the water. If you’re using a relatively short line (maybe about the length of the rod or less), keeping the casting line off the water isn’t too much of a hassle. You may even be able to keep the rod tip and line directly above the fly in some situations. Something to note, is as the longer and/or heavier the line you’re using is, the more you may need to account for changes in the presentation.
With a heavier line, any amount of sag will start to pull the fly in the direction of the bend. This curve in the line is referred to as “otsuri” and can be both an advantage or disadvantage in your presentation, depending how you use it.
With a longer line, you’ll encounter much of the same issues caused by this “otsuri,” with the added challenge of more line to manage in order to create a natural drift. There is a multi-faceted answer to managing the influence of one’s drift caused by both heavy and or long lines.
The first is how you manage your line during and after a cast. To keep it short and sweet, the idea is to move your line in a way that keeps the majority of the weight in a position that is where the fly is already moving toward as opposed to a position where it may drag the fly away from the natural path the current would take it down. This can be something you set up using “aerial mending” during a cast, by adjusting the position of the rod tip after the cast, or a combination of the two.
The second thing you can do to manage the drift is your own bodily positioning in relation to the current. If you’re fishing upstream, it’s much easier to get a clean dead drift at a more shallow angle to where you want to fish. We rarely want to be directly down-current from where we’re drifting as this can add difficulty to hooking up on a fish, but having a slight offset can be beneficial - especially when we have the rod length to help us with that. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you can use the position of the rod tip to help manage your line. This opens up the opportunity to get a nice dead drift in a current that is as far away from you as the length of your rod.
This can come in handy if you’re in a situation where you are only able to fish a section where you’re about 90 degrees from the flow of water. If you’re able to position yourself where the rod tip rests above the current you’re trying to fish, you can get a good dead drift.
Building off the idea of positioning in relation to where you want to dead drift, another option that should not be overlooked is fishing downstream. This may be the ticket when the wind picks up (depending on the situation), or when fishing to wary trout. Being up-current of where you want your fly to drift offers both stealth, and some line management benefits. As for the part about stealth, the idea is that without having to cast over any fish and letting the fly drift down to them, the fish are more likely to see your fly first, before your casting line. With this approach, there is a chance that an angler can benefit from a little line in the water to help anchor the fly in it’s drift (especially in windy conditions), but be sure to keep both the fly and the line in the same seam.
Another benefit of dead drifting downstream is that an angler can more easily control a slow in the dead drift if needed, as well as steer the fly a little if a slight correction is needed. Don’t overdo either of these things though, as it changes your presentation away from a dead drift. Ideally, they are meant to be subtle corrections that are imposed before your fly hits the spot where you’re expecting a fish.
When To Dead Drift
A dead drift really works in most situations, with any fly. I would say that I catch the majority of my fish through a dead drift regardless of time of day, weather conditions, or water conditions. Outside of the fact that it works in so many instances, it’s also one of the least “intrusive” presentations and, when done right, less likely to turn the fish off - as opposed to a presentation that is a little more animated.
I think it’s safe to say that a dead drift is a great first presentation to use.
Where To Dead Drift
A dead drift tends to work better in water with some movement. I suppose you could technically “dead drift” in still water, but it may be more of a dead float.
Really, what we’re looking for is to place the fly in moving currents and allow it to reach the depth we want and have it drift past a trout. There seems to be a comfortable speed of flow that fish tend to hold in, and that is generally around walking pace. With that said, you may find that trying to achieve a dead drift on slower moving water means the fly may be more susceptible to influence from the otsuri, and may require some adjustment of your approach to account for that. On the other side of it, when flows are high and fast, a dead drift may not be the best option unless you’re able to get the fly into a section where there’s a little relief from the swift currents - whether that’s on the banks, or deeper in the water column.
This brings up another thing to consider in your decision of where to drift the fly. You can fish a dead drift both on the surface or below. Fish activity will be one of the deciding factors, but to simplify it, drift your fly where the fish will see it.
If they’re regularly coming up to the surface to eat, don’t hesitate to fish the fly on top of the surface or just under it. Fishing your fly “drowned,” or just a little under the surface anchors the fly a bit, and offers a more stable dead drift, while a fly that rests on top of the surface film tends to skate around a little.
Another option is to use a little weight to get the fly lower in the column. Whether using a weighted fly or adding weight into the line, this will change a little on how you may adjust your approach and how you manage the position and slack of your line.
I have to admit, when I started writing this, I didn’t realize how much information there is to consider in a dead drift. For such a simple presentation, and one that we all learn early on, I was not expecting to write about so many little details. And, while there is a lot of information and ideas talked about in this post, I wanted to close it all out by saying that it sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Go out and fish a dead drift! You don’t have to think about it too much, it really is a simple and easy presentation that you’ll find will almost always catch fish.
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