Dry fly fishing myth vs reality
You go into a fly shop or delve into the sport of fly fishing & dry fly fishing is considered the apex. The casting is artful, the flies are beautiful & varied. You learn about the different hatches. You can use a traditional bamboo rod if you want to present flies delicately. When a trout takes a dry it can be a wonderful experience.
My reality is however that if you actually want to catch fish, nymphing is where it’s at. You don’t need to know about hatches. You can use a Walt’s worm or a Perdigon and almost always be successful. You don’t have to care about time of day or wait for rises.
Every year I go to local stocked streams during trout season hoping to see a rise & virtually never do. I fling around a dry without any success & resort to nymphing in order to actually catch some fish. Why do I even look at the hatch charts or tie on a Hendrickson let’s say, if no fish rises to it?
It’s not that I’ve never seen rises. I have when I’ve gone to well know gold medal streams further away from where I live. But even in those locals rises are rare in my experience.
Should I give up on dry fly fishing in my local stocked streams? Should I force myself to use dries all day in one of these streams with the hope of getting lucky? Should I only use dries when I see rises? How will I get good at it if I don’t do it often?
From SE Pennsylvania & been fly fishing for 5-6 years.