I've got this vision of how flyfishing should work. I'm not sure where the vision came from, movies, too drunk to sleep 4am fishing shows, cabelas advertisements? I'd characterize it as mostly dry flies, or active casting/stripping sort of activity.

I was fishing Munn in Olympia yesterday and watched guys in pontoons and float tubes cast and then just kick around backwards most of the time. It felt more like trolling than fly fishing. The action didn't seem too intense so I wasn't too discouraged by my failure to hook a fish.

I guess I'm asking when are dry flies or active fishing most effective? I gave up and trolled a dodger/wedding ring after a while and hooked/released a big holdover. If I was going to troll I guess I'd rather do that than pull a fly around.

Fly fishing is using a fly rod and fly to catch fish, be it trolling or stripping/retrieving.

There are a lot of lake fly fishers who just troll, but most use a combination of both trolling and stripping. I prefer to strip for fish, but you have to get from one place to another so I troll.

Dry flies work best when the fish are actively feeding on/near the surface. You need to have feeding activity going on around you so that you can locate fish and cast in their direction.

If you are dialed in and actively fishing it will almost always out-produce trolling I have found. If you are casting to the wrong place, with the wrong fly with the wrong retrieve you will get out fished by the trollers almost every time.

I have seen [people do this before. They kick around in floattubes in the mojave desert sun with a fly trolling and catch bass in the sunny desert. Cool.

Something about this combination of words doesn't strike me quite right.

I know when I have fished for bass, most of the time it was really hot. Fishing for bass in cool water is kind of hard.

Thaxor:

I think the best way to explain trolling flies is that fly fishing is estimated by most to be about 90% presentation, and sometimes the sneakiest, most alluring motion an angler can impart on a retrieved fly can do nothing to compete with the hopelessly unnatural appearance achieved by trolling.

Like most, I prefer casting to fish, but trolling can sometimes teach me a lot about where fish are and how they are behaving in a given situation, and that makes it a valuable tool in my box. It also bears mention that there are days and places where it's the only thing that consistently catches fish. In my experience, Munn Lake is not one of those places, even if trolling is effective there. It is small, the fish are spread out all over the lake, and bugs are plentiful, all of which make it a great lake for casting.

Thaxor,

Dry fly fishing for trout is infrequently effective on western WA lakes, maybe about 5% of the time. The reason is that most of the insects that make up trout food don't have much of an adult phase of sitting on the water surface when they can be fed on. A few caddis - sedges especially - and callibetis mayfly hatches occur. Otherwise, chironomids, damselflies, and dragonflies don't spend enough time floating on the surface to draw significant feeding activity. However I did see a trout eat a damselfly once. Since most feeding occurs subsurface, you'll catch most of your trout in lakes on nymphs that imitate or simulate chironomids, damselflies, dragonflies, and leeches fished subsurface.

Sg

I'll do some searching in my fly box for small body sinking type nymphs. Up to this point I was fishing Dry flys probably 90% of the time. I'll bump that down and leave it mostly for bass near lilypads.

Thanks

Don't give up on the dries, thaxor. I would say that Sg's estimate of the general productivity is probably pretty close, but when you get one of those 5% moments (you'll know it by the once quiet lake becoming a myriad of ripples, rises, and splashes), you'll be kicking yourself if you don't have something dry to throw at them. Sometimes, I'll bring two rods with me, one set up for dry fly fishing and the other for nymph/streamer fishing. That way, it's not such a hassle to change up your tactics on a second's notice. The trouble (at least for me) is that I still haven't found a great way to keep the non-fishing rod out of the way on a pontoon boat or float tube, so everything but the switching can be a pain.

Have two rods. I've seen rougue fish surface feeding, and snuck up on 'em. In the lakes is the only time I fly fish. I always do better with surface stuff when it is warmer, but by then it's salmon and summer steelhead time. I got a 12 ft alum. boat and troll slow speed, and cast sideways out the boat with nymphs. It puts a real slow action on it, and I can constantly cast and not have to worry about stripping that much. My old boat has alot of stuff for the line to get caught on.

I learned just so that I could go to selective gear lakes, and now it's my method of choice everywhere. I only pull out the power bait when it's nap time. This is coming from a guy who has a secret spinner that will pull out holdovers, brooders, and limits everytime out. Trouts just aint special enough for me to use gear anymore. Plus they taste like crap.

Some lakes have a lot more action for fishing dry flies than others, but generally it's timing. As other have said, most fish will feed below the surface.

However, I like to think of if this way when it comes to fishing dry flies on a lake. It's not if they'll take them, just when. It's all a timing game. Some lakes are more predictable in timing the hatch than others. Also the time of year plays an important factor when the hatch comes off.

Also watch the swallows. If there are a lot of swallows flying around the lake, then you know there are a lot of bugs hatching off the surface. When they go away, the hatch is done for now. But, the swallows will be back, along with the fish, at some point.

Last week Brad, Brian and I fished a west side lake that I never fished before. It really surprised me the number of swallows working the lake ALL day. There were a lot of bugs hatching. These swallows were the fattest swallows I've seen too, porky little guys. The fish were off and on taking dries through out the day. So, you just have to be ready for them.

I'm with KK on having three rods set up. Mine would be a floater, clear intermediate and a type III full sink when I'm using my SFC or pontoon.

In my raft, I'll add another floater so I can have both a chironomid and dry fly rod rigged and ready. Each lake fishes differently based on the time of year, depth, hatches, water temps etc. The lake I've been fishing lately has required nothing but floaters to get the job done.

One other line that works really well is is a type VI full sink. Great for trolling deep lakes as well as vertical chironomid fishing.

I generally just bring a floater and intermediate for the lakes I fish. Once you figure out how and where you like to fly fish you know what to bring along.