We previously published a post that details the dead drift. At the end of the post I mentioned that I didn’t expect such a basic presentation to hold so much depth as to how it’s achieved. I think some of that comes from the fact that it’s often one of the first presentations we learn, and that as we become more familiar with fishing tenkara, it becomes so instinctual. We don’t often think about all the little actions we do to adjust our drift.
I would suggest checking out the article, because it serves as a primer and reference point for what we’re talking about in this one. You can find the link below…
Having covered the basics and considerations of the dead drift from my own perspective, the post is limited by my own scope of reference. We all have our own ways of approaching things, and I’m sure that there are small nuances to how different anglers go about achieving a dead drift. This may be due to the waters we fish, or the gear we use to chase trout (or other species) in those waters. So with that, we asked some of our friends in the community to share their approach to getting a dead drift, as well as any tips or tricks they may have.
Amanda Hoffner
South Carolina - Southern Appalachians
Regardless of the kebari I am fishing, I would say that I use the dead drift presentation as my first approach to every spot fished. I attempt to hit a spot I want the fly to float into to find a fish. I primarily fish tight water with short runs. I typically leave my fly in the water 3-5 seconds max. I will dead drift again hitting the same spot I did before or hitting the end of the run I just lifted my fly from.
To get a good drift, I make sure to look up and around me before casting to make sure I can move my rod appropriately to get the drift I want. I am usually using a 8’ rod in really tight spots or a 11’6 rod when I can on the streams I fish. I use the longest rod I can get away with by the amount of foliage around me. I will even go so far as putting on a 8’ or 10’ line to make my drift easier under the trees and branches and the hookset shorter than hitting the branches above the rod.
Dre Fornasiero (New School Tenkara)
Iowa - Driftless
For my part, "dead drift" as it is referred to is slightly misunderstood and over-emphasized. As fly anglers we have been told time and time again the dead drift is also "drag-free." As tenkara anglers, we know that drag is a part of every drift and is not a bad thing. We use drag to steer our fly on the surface, and when manipulating it upstream. When referring to a dead drift, we should think of it as simply a presentation where the angler doesn’t impart a life-like manipulation. Take notice to the phrase "life-like manipulation," meaning a dead drift fly or kebari will most undoubtedly be manipulated, but not to make it seem alive. When you remove the physically impossible "drag free" from the equation, "dead drift" seems a far more achievable presentation.
Jared Willadsen (Tenkara Genki)
Wisconsin - Driftless
I mainly fish in the Driftless of Wisconsin, and if I don't see anything rising I usually will fish something with a small tungsten bead head. That can vary from a purple perdigon to a WI favorite, a pink squirrel. I recently just started tying kebari and have focused on the Ishigaki kebari with an added tungsten bead head. It’s simple to tie and very effective! The trout may even say it’s deadly.
When I approach a stream I like to look and see if there is any top water activity (fish rising). If there is activity on the surface or it’s the summer time I’ll usually tie on a #12 kebari. A lot of Wisconsin streams in the summer time will be overgrown with brush around them, I like to hide behind them and as I like to call it “do a blind cast.” A lot of the times brown trout are looking up and are eager to explode on it! I also use that same approach when there are curves in the stream. I like to use the little peninsulas as blinds and I will usually stand about the length of my tenkara rod away from the stream and cast to the water's edge. Tons of trout hang out under the undercuts of the stream banks waiting to pounce! If no one bites, I cast upstream with a dread drift.
Now to the DEAD DRIFT, I find that trout show themselves pretty quickly with a dead drift. At least the hungry ones. If you are in a nice riffle and no one bites on 5 or 6 passes of a dead drift, I’ll try to give the kebari a lil action on the surface. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. I then go back to a dead drift in a different line of the stream while still standing in one spot. But I then put my rod tip a few inches lower so there is more tippet in the water, the kebari sink a lil more. Deeper, a lil bit deeper with the dead drift. A lot of times you will get a sub surface strike. You see the fish flash! Set the hook! You can do all of this over and over, dissecting the stream and riffle apart. Usually you will have luck. And if not, you can always throw on that confidence fly. The pink squirrel!
Kaz Okada
California - Southern and Eastern Sierra Nevadas
Oh dead drift! That was the one of the first things that I needed to become good at in order to have trout after learning how to cast Tenkara.
I fish in a variety of types of streams but locally most streams that I call my home are small mid gradient headwaters covered by heavy foliage. Because the flow of these streams are mostly low, I practice sawanobori style of Tenkara most of the time. Sawanobori is basically a wet wading canyoneering developed as a style of mountaineering in Japan. Unlike the western counterpart that descends the canyons, sawanobori ascends them.
This style of stream work allows me to be in the middle of it then cast upstream from where I stand. This makes the casted flies always come toward me making the distance between the fly and me shorter as I drift it. I raise my rod so as to keep the good line tension balancing the naturalness of the drift and the tension of line enough to feel the strike.
As I became more versed in this style of angling, I started to give more line slack opting for better naturalness of dead drift. I learned to detect bites by observing line motions even when I am fishing deeper in the water column. This slack improved hookup ratios, I think when using weighted flies.
In recent years, I had great opportunities to visit Japan and fish alongside Tenkara anglers there. I fished in the central mountain area of Gifu and Nagano with them. Streams that I trekked with them were larger than my home ones but more open and full of rock footings that allowed us to wade in the middle of them. We all exercise the same style I described above.
I sometimes travel to bigger rivers chasing larger specimens. In such an environment I often find myself wanting to fish the section of the river where I cannot position in the middle of it due to too much flow and the lack of footings. In such a situation, I still always try to get as close as I can to a point and cast as upsteam as I can. My trick to keep the naturalness of my drifts in this type of environment is 1) use a longer rod and line system, and 2) make the length of drift shorter. This required me to cast accurately with a long line system (about 1.5 times the length of rod). It was an interesting challenge that I enjoyed mastering. A line system longer than that did not work well for me. I mostly use barbless hooks. When fighting against those wild honryu trout, with a long line like 2 times the rod length, my catch ratio decreased significantly due to them unhooking themselves by aerials and sudden bursts. Maybe this is where I can challenge myself to learn better but I have not tried it yet of late.
Martin Montejano
California - Northern Sierra Nevadas
When it comes to a dead drift, I like to think of where I want the fly to be in the water column. I mostly fish with futsu kebari, so I will adjust my cast to target where I want to fly to drift.
If I’m targeting fish that are coming to the surface to eat, I will aim to keep the kebari on the surface. How I achieve it depends on the length of the line I have. I generally prefer a line that’s close to the length of the rod, and will try to introduce a little slack for a surface presentation. I do this by trying to put the weight of the line down-current from the fly, with the drape of the line slightly pulling the fly downstream. I find this helps to keep the fly on the surface and to set myself up for better hook-ups on fish.
When the situation calls for a fly deeper in the column, I aim to put the fly into turbulent water that will pull it under, and cast in a way that puts line up-current of the fly so that the slack lets the fly sink into the water. I try to manage the line in a way that keeps very little slack after the fly gets to the depth that I want, usually by moving the rod tip over where I think the fly is so that my casting line rests just above the fly and moves at the same pace. I watch for subtle movement in the line to detect subtle strikes, and often feel more aggressive strikes as the fish hook themselves pretty quickly with this method.
Whether it’s a subtle or aggressive take, I still follow it up with a slight rise of the rod tip diagonally down-current of the drift to sure-up the hook set.
As far as certain gear that may work better for dead drifts, I really try to choose light lines. I don’t really believe the rod action changes the dead drift per se, but I guess if you’re fishing more weighted flies deeper in the water column, a faster rod helps with hook sets. But, the dead drift is still the same. In my own fly selection, I like a futsu with some loose dubbing. I find the stiff hackle helps me to anchor the fly better where I want it, and the dubbing gives it a little more movement in the water - even without imparting animation to the fly.
Nate Camp (Camp_Made)
Connecticut - The North East
Getting a fly in or on the water is typically a very precise, active and engaged movement. As complex and precise as that step can be, seldom does that act alone yield an immediate result. A following action must be taken, usually by putting a slight pulse, skating across the surface, or even recasting can be the tipping point to entice some trout. Despite the temptation to manipulate the path of the bug, another technique everyone should know how to employ is to use no obvious action at all.
Following a presentation without disturbing the fly at all can often be the best way to success. The overthinking angler may even wonder if there must be a balance between deliberate action for delivery and the lingering stillness in a drift.
As a fisherman who delights over the intricacies of using heavy flies in all situations, planning out each set of casts in advance is a crucial step in my process. By considering each deliberate movement, a solution can be found that should land the fly favorably with the least motion to betray my presence. If that first move has been made as planned, with the fly more or less where intended, the soft work can begin. By that I mean to gently trace the path of my fly with the line cleanly off the surface, doing this correctly in a deep dead drift is most often the method that gets the fly eaten when the fish are picky. By allowing currents to dictate the path simplifies following actions. Adjusting rod height to control the amount of submerged tippet, keeping a basic awareness of water depth and softly lifting at the end of a drift pays off. Swinging the rod to match the river’s pace and direction of the current can make a soft following drift create a sort of stillness that is often unbearably appealing to a feeding fish.
My method for each attempt at fish follows a similar formula each time;
Picking a point at the farthest reach upstream that I can get to with my line.
Checking the overhead cover, ahead, beside and behind me.
Observing the current for swells and surface disturbances, clues about what’s happening underneath.
After the assessment is done I execute;
Cast to the chosen point, let the fly reach the desired depth, follow the current until the fly rises to the surface. Repeat.
As a matter of habit, I fish my fly along the surface of the water for the first couple casts and then progressively fish it deeper through the run. Once I decide on the depth to use, I keep the length of tippet between my line and the water constant for the whole drift. This can differ each time, depending on the previous drift and conditions on the water. I would feel confident saying that dead drifting accounts for most of my presentations.
Payton Skidmore (Skiddy Fishing)
Utah - Rocky Mountains
The streams I typically fish are best to be waded directly in the center with every cast being directly up the stream (think of the average Tenkara Addict video). The beauty of tenkara is that every cast is a dead drift with the only requirement to lift the rod. If the pool I am fishing is deep, I try to be as deep as I can. If I fish the top water, I either want to be just subsurfaced with kebari or a dry fly with as little tippet touching the water as possible.
My uncle has taught me that pulling up moss or dirt from the bottom is always a good sign. Hit the bottom first when dead drifting. Even if you are perpendicular to the river and fishing on the bank.
5x tippet is really a go too for either situation for 90% of my fishing and I have caught plenty of fish 15-19" on 5x.
The art of dead drifting a dry fly is not having level line or furled line sagging. Be sure to pick a line light enough to remain tight and in full control of your arm following the current. Sometimes 3.0 is better than the typical 3.5 level line.
In talking to other anglers in our community we see the differences in their individual habits when dead drifting a fly. We’ve mentioned in other articles on our website that we all approach things differently, and oftentimes our individual fishing styles are developed by the waters and species we fish for. Part of our goal with this post was to share the approaches of anglers from different regions around the country. You may see some overlap of ideas mentioned, such as depth and line control. Some regions also echo similar considerations, such as checking for overhead trees while planning the approach.
We think that seeing the different explanations to different anglers approaches goes to show that while the dead drift is, in concept, the same no matter where you go, there are so many ways to tailor a simple presentation to fit the needs that the situation and environment may require for one to catch fish.
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