Learn: fly fishing technique

I have competed in fly fishing for more than ten years. These articles are the craft behind that, written down: what I rig, why, and what the published sources say, with the figures in millimetres, metres and grams.

Start with the rules. The FIPS-Mouche rules say what a competition angler may fish: how long the rod and the leader may be, how many flies and how far apart, how big the bead. They explain the rigs, even if you never compete.

Then the rig itself. How long the leader, the sighter and the tippet should be. What a micro leader is, and what it costs you in casting. One nymph or two, and how far apart. How heavy the nymph should be, bead size by bead size, and how to choose the weight on the water.

Then the fish. Grayling first: where they lie and how they take beside trout, and why they refuse a dry fly. Then huchen: the rod, the line, the leader and the streamer the fish asks for.

None of this belongs to one river. If you want it on the water, I teach it on a guided day and in competition training. The rivers themselves are in the rest of the Journal.