How Do You Think He Does It, What makes Him So Good?

Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist using the title.

 Chris asked a good question, answered most of it himself but it gives me another opportunity to stress what I believe are the things you need to do to catch more fish on in the Delaware River.

Casting - First read  the Making the Cast page. Know that I'll never win a casting contest but I have learned to minimize drag better than most. Remember, if you want the fish to eat the fly it has to be moving at the same speed as the bubbles around it. 

Flies - Read Finding the Magic Fly. I tie my own but I'll never be more than a mediocre fly tier. What I  try to do is make my flies look exactly like the ones hatching. They don't, but I keep trying. Years ago when fly shops had one Hendrickson pattern and one sulfur pattern and one - -  you get the idea, the mantra was don't fish shop flies. Why? Because everyone was fishing the same fly and the fish learned not to eat it. Now days the shops carry more variations of each fly than you could ever fit in your box. If you don't tie your own and rely on shop flies, buy some fly tying scissors and prune the shop flies where needed to make them look more like the real thing (you go to the barber shop in hopes of making yourself look better don't you?).  

Knowing the river - This is a big one. I've walked (and fished) the entire UEB, EB, WB, and BR from the dams to Callicoon for over 30 years. Because of the variations in flow releases, water levels, hatch progressions and water temps, deciding where to fish is a crap shoot every day. Yesterday I was in the wrong place in all four places that I fished. Why? Because I didn't realize that when they cut back the release the resulting three degree rise in the water temp would shut off the bugs. What I can tell you is that if you go to the same place every time you fish you will be in the wrong place almost all of the time.

Knowing your opponent - This is the most important one. No trout will graduate from Harvard or Yale either for that matter, but mother nature has equipped them with enough reasoning power, memory and instinct for survival that they are more than a match for the average fishermen. Know that they see your fly and if they don't eat your fly it's because they know something is wrong with it. Standing there repeatedly throwing a fly at a fish that refused it (even if he is still rising ) is a waste of your time and an insult to the fishes intelligence.  Once you have the basic casting skills to present a fly, being able to understand what fish are telling you and learning from it is perhaps the most important factor in being a successful angler.

That and of course,  having a supple wrist.