Triple your Success on the

Dry Fly & Nymph Method

(without buying a new fly rod)

Free Expert Fly Fishing Skills Guide

Paul Gaskell

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W elcome to your fast-track to dramatically
improved river fly fishing results. In less
than 20 pages, youll have one of the best kept
competition anglers secrets for yourself
When you understand how it works, you can take back the
unfair advantage enjoyed by competitive anglers and use it in
your own recreational fishing.
MANY people try to use this technique, but they consistently
make the same set of mistakes (and so they miss out on huge
opportunities).
The method itself probably has more names than almost any
other method in fly fishing! Here is a selection of those names
that you might have heard:
Dry-dropper, Duo, Hopper-dropper, Dry/nymph, klink
and dink and probably more
This tactic is ideal for the months of the year when fish and
insects are pretty active. In other words, for most of the
season as long as it is not the dead of winter.
Of course there are more tactics that let you tackle the full
range of year-round conditions. To get those, you can take
advantage of my Free email tutorial series.
Click Here to Start Receiving Your Free Lessons

Enjoy playing with these tactics and heres to your success on

stream

Paul

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What the Fly Fishing Magazines Didnt Want You to Know
Anglers are too dumb...
Back in 2013 I wrote an article that explained why almost all
video demonstrations of how to fish the duo (or
hopper/dropper) method were bad examples to follow. The
article then described an improved approach and explained
why it worked better.
The differences were very ordinary actions that any angler
could use to greatly improve their chances (increasing catches
by perhaps as many as 3x more fish).
Why havent you read this article? Well, for the very good
reason that the piece was bluntly rejected by the mainstream
fly fishing press. The general answer being something like
Our readers are not interested in things that are too
technical.
To me this sounded a little bit too close to our readers are too
dumb .
I was amazed, the advice was so simple and effective (and
besides anglers are not dumb!). Yet it could not be printed
because the editors had such a low opinion of their audience
Stuart Crofts' 2003 World Championship Story
This situation is really quite scandalous and seems even
more so when you consider the conversation that Ive had
many times with Stuart Crofts (capped 15x for England in
international river fly fishing competitions).
I like the story so much that I get Stuart to re-tell it at regular
intervals.
The story is from the 2003 World Championships in Spain and
a certain Juan Del Carman, who was the Spanish host for the
England team. You see, it turns out that Juan gave almost

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identical advice to that in the rejected article. At first the guys
did not take too much notice since they were already
catching plenty of fish. But, they certainly did take notice
when their Spanish advisor went back through the same water
and caught around 3 x as many fish as the previous best total!
At that point he had the full attention of a team of top fly
anglers. Was it some kind of magic fly? Perhaps he had
changed the rig or used some amazing new tippet material??
No.
He just changed how he put his flies on the water and how
long he left them there.
Now wouldnt you like to know what those simple secrets are?
Well I guess anyone with an ounce of curiosity would want to
know. Its one of the things that keeps us going back to the
river to fish isnt it just being curious about what might take
your fly today? You never know when that fish of a lifetime
will put in an appearance.
The Rig
First of all, let me show you the rig that we are talking about
here. It is actually a very simple modification of the rig I explain
in my free Czech nymphing tutorials. All you do is put a bushy,
buoyant dry fly on the dropper (instead of the nymph that we
used on the dropper for our Czech nymphing approach).
You would also commonly put a quite skinny bead-head
nymph with a 2 to 3mm diameter tungsten bead on the point
rather than a chunkier nymph.
See both diagrams over the page for details of how to set up
(note, you should use a good floatant applied thinly to the
bushy dry fly - and using buoyant polypropylene of a visible
colour are other good things to include).

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No need to buy a new rod if you already have one (and you can
learn the knots you need in the free emails):

You can use this rig equally well on a tenkara rod or a regular
fly rod & reel.

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Basics
The nymph and the dry are cast up and (optionally) across the
stream, tracked with the rod tip and fish can either take the
dry fly on the surface or the submerged nymph. So far, all of
this is identical to what most competitors would already be
doing when they fished the duo.
Actually, now is a good time to mention that you can quite
often use up to 3 flies when Czech nymphing (and with this
technique too) but it is really useful to get to grips with the
two-fly approach first.
It is also an excellent time to flag up that although the
methods I have explained so far are very effective I am not
really getting out of second gear technically speaking
(although the next lesson does go beyond the norm and reveal
something pretty special).
It will take quite a while to lay the foundations for each
technique and there will be many variations and differences
from what you might see me do on stream (or teach in
person). Rest assured that each technical tutorial will have
information that you would need to pay multiple days of
one-to-one guidng fees to obtain. This assumes that your
guide knows or teaches those fine details at all of course
You can also rest assured that fewer than one in five (and from
my personal judgement fewer than one in ten) anglers and
guides either use or teach the stuff covered in this course.
Taken over the full series of the tutorials, there will be well
over $2880 worth of guidance (and this is free when you click
to choose your location and register with your email)
How to get started on the improved method
All I am saying is, just be aware that there are higher gears to
go to beyond the info here (hence the links out to relevant
supplementary info and the reason we also guide clients).

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This can be useful to remember where you already know
about some different tweaks and options that do not appear
in these lessons. I am not saying that what I describe in these
lessons is the ONLY way to do things. But they are the best to
start with!
Now back to the central point of this lesson. I need to define
the basics of the duo method before covering common
mistakes. I also need to give the basic outline of what Juan did
that so dramatically increased his catch rate.
So here it is in Three Simple Steps after the next diagram and
because it is so simple you can use it on regular fly fishing gear
or tenkara rod equally effectively.

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Looking at the previous diagram , the trick is as follows:
1. Stop the rod high on the forward cast so that the
nymph lands furthest UPSTREAM (you generally cast
upstream and slightly across) and HOLD ALL YOUR LINE
AND TIPPET OFF THE WATER RIGHT UP TO THE DRY FLY
2. Only let your flies drift for between 3 and 5 seconds (any
longer and you risk lining fish you werent aware of or
even worse passing your rod tip over their heads
before they have seen your fly) and DO NOT ALLOW
YOUR DRY FLY TO SUSPEND THE NYMPH like a float or
bobber
3. Choose the weight of nymph so that it is reaching its full
depth within about 5 seconds after hitting the water
(another great reason to just use 3, 4 or 5 second drifts
you wont snag the bottom anywhere near as often.
When it is shallow pick off after counting 3. When it is
deep leave it for 5).

Step 2, above, is the basis of what Juan showed the England

team. In other words, two very short drifts were more than
twice as good as one longer drift in the same spot. Simple
but what a difference it makes to catch rates!
It probably goes without saying, but if you see a fish eat the
dry fly you set the hook. If the dry fly stops or shoots
under/sideways, you set the hook. With no line on the water,
if you dont hook up you just re-cast to the same spot and
continue fishing.
Simple but very, very, very effective.

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Things to avoid
1. Allowing the nymph to overtake the dry fly or even
letting the weight of the nymph to hang vertically
below the dry fly
2. Super long dead drifts I KNOW IT IS TEMPTING because
you are holding all your line and leader off the water
right up to the fly. It will drift like a dream. The problem
has two parts you will line way more fish AND the fly
spends the least time doing its most attractive motions
(this point is worth repeating to hammer it home so we
will cover it in the next lesson).
3. Laying any casting line (particularly heavy fly line) on the
surface of the water. This reduces the quality of your
drift, it dulls your strike, again it scares fish by lining
them before theyve seen your flies and possibly worst
of all it makes a huge
SLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHHHHH!!!! sound
when you strike (and miss!) a fish. That effectively
empties the water in front of you of all the other fish you
might have caught - had you not just scared the living
crap out of them!
Despite how obvious this last point is when you stop and think
about it you only need a short Youtube search to find plenty
of prominent examples of people teaching you to do exactly
that (SLOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHH!!! Bump, bump fish
lost after two head-shakes).
The really interesting thing is, in high water conditions, you
can often get away with laying some line on the water (it
wont scare quite as many fish). The problem comes when you
rely on that same approach in lower water then you really
struggle. Plus, even in high water, you will still lose more fish -
because the hook-hold is much worse. This is because you

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need to first pull the heavy line free of the grip of the waters
surface before you start to make the hook penetrate.
With the line and tippet held off the water up to the dry fly,
you immediately have a direct contact when you set the hook.
Neat.
So, get ready for the next lesson because it will also reveal
one of the top ninja tricks for fishing this method. This will
really expand on the real method that allows the huge
increase in catch rate.
You may also be interested to know that the full version of the
free email course covers more methods and details on
European nymph fishing than it will be possible to cover in this
introduction. There are also links in the email lessons to
dedicated download bundles of video and pdf e-books.
The nymph fishing content will progress through the full range
of dead-drift/up and across approaches (as well as many
ninja tricks thrown in for good measure). As well as the
basics, there is also material to explain downstream
approaches with nymphs and even streamers.
If youve liked this lesson or others (or have questions), please
feel free to email me on paulgaskellflyfishing@gmail.com and
Ill do my best to answer as soon as I can.

Now, lets check out the second lesson over the page

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What Competition Anglers AND the Magazines Dont Want
You to Know
Making Competition Anglers Nervous...
This is a good one. Clients have, quite rightly, paid a lot of
money to be taught these tactical tweaks. I also realise that
Im giving it away to any other guides who pick up this e-book.
Yet, Im doing it for free with a smile on my face
Why would I possibly want to do this?
Well, by reading the whole of this lesson, you will understand
perfectly by the time you reach the last words. You will also
have gained a great tactic that will take your results to the
next level. More importantly, you will get it in an easy to learn
format. A demonstration is OK but an explanation of the
reasons along with instructions is much better.
You see, the previous lesson gave the "level one" basics of
multiplying your catch rate on the duo. The shortest summary
of that would probably be:
Keep all your line and tippet off the water right up to the dry
fly
coupled with
Instead of doing one long drift with the current (of say 8 to 10
seconds duration); break up that long drift into two or more
short drifts.
These short drifts should be of 3 to 5 seconds duration and,
when all of them are completed, they will have covered the
same area that your single, much longer, drift would have
travelled through. Before I explain why this works, I need to
give you the next level option that the top competition anglers
use

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Beginners' or Experts' Tactic?
Interestingly, this 3 second, precision drift approach is covered
in Dr. Ishigakis beginners tenkara lessons you can see him
teach it and explain the reasons for it in the Discovering
Tenkara Vol. 1 DVD. Thats right, the refinement known only
to top competition anglers in the rest of the world is taught to
all beginners that attend Dr. Ishigakis novice tenkara events in
Japan.
But Im getting side-tracked
Here is the turbo charged version for competition duo fishing
(and as I will show later in this lesson, there are more levels
above this one). Look carefully at the diagram below and
then relate it to the following instructions:

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 1. Mentally break down the water in front of you into a grid
pattern (pictured on previous page) and systematically
cast into each square on the grid. The straight edge of
each grid cell should be roughly the distance that your fly
will travel downstream with the current in about 3 to 5
seconds
2. Work the nearest squares first (never cast into the same
square twice) and work across stream from the
downstream edge of the grid to the upstream edge. The
Numbers in each cell show my suggested sequence of
casts the first cast is to cell number 1, the last is to cell
number 9.
3. Depending on the current (and various obstructions),
there may be a different best sequence for casting into
each grid cell but the diagram shows a good suggested
starting option
4. Notice that the distance travelled in 3 seconds is not
constant it varies with pace of water (so the size of
each grid cell will also vary)
So what is the reason for both the extremely short drifts AND
what the hell is the deal with the numbered sequence of
where to cast??
A question of Stealth
It is easiest to start out by tackling the second question here
and to do that I need to give you the formula for all successful
fly fishing (you know, just that small Holy Grail thing)
The secret of all fly fishing basically comes down to:
1.) Triggering a fishs reflex to feed
without
2.) Triggering off its flee for cover reaction

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Simple but often very, very difficult to achieve
The very great majority of angling writing and video material
concentrates almost entirely on the first point. There is almost
zero information on the second. Or, where it is mentioned,
there are few or (probably) no usable instructions on how to
achieve it.
This is a major reason for the grid diagram. It is your map on
how to achieve both 1 and 2 when fishing the duo.
To be specific, the grid diagram (and the suggested
sequence of covering each cell) is designed to make sure your
fly (or flies) are always the first thing that the fish sees. These
are your food signals that you are sending out to the fish
so you need them to come across loud and clear.
The second thing that the grid and the casting sequence does
is vitally important. It means that there is a much smaller
chance that either your rod or your line passes over the
head(s) of the fish that you want to catch. The sweep of the
rod, the splash of a line from a bad cast, the shadow or
movement of line laying on the water and passing over the fish
are all Potential Predator signals.
You do not want your target fish to receive those signals!
At least not before you have invited them to check out your
delicious flies first.
Study the diagram on the next page to see what I mean
(carefully contrast it to the picking off the back-markers
approach in the previous "right way" numbered sequence
diagram)

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The short drift also entices fish...
The real beauty of the short drift comes from the fact that the
nymph spends a much greater proportion of each drift (and
consequently a much greater proportion of your full day)
doing its most enticing manoeuvres. What manoeuvres are
those then? you say?!
Well, put simply, the sinking phase or fishing on the drop
and then the upward sweep to lift off. Both of these are kinds
of induced take - just like Frank Sawyer used to recommend on
the chalk streams back in the day (and we can thank him for
the pheasant tail nymph and the killer bug while we are at it).
These induced take movements are most effective when
both fish and insect life is most active (i.e. late spring, summer
and the warm parts of autumn).
So if you only do one huge long drift you get two very short
phases of attractive presentation separated by a big, long,

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boring bit in the middle. Just think if youd broken that same
drift down into three much shorter ones; youd have had 6
enticing movements as well as a little dead drift thrown in just
for those lazy fish!
Give it a go the next time you are fishing some nice popply
water with some varied paces of current (it is not designed for
very flat, slow pools) and the air temp is warm enough to
encourage some insect activity. There are better methods for
cold weather and fish really hugging the bottom in deep pools
e.g. the Czech nymphing s as well as other methods covered
in the free email course.
Where Next, and Why Give This Info Away ?
Well, there are far more reliable ways of making a wage than
tenkara and river fly fishing tuition (even within the fishing
industry). So it is a good job that I get a huge amount of
satisfaction from helping people to improve. I would happily
do it all for free if money were no object!
There is also the fact that, even though the above explanation
is fairly High Level Stuff - I still have many additional layers to
pass on to you (and this is the same for my colleague John).
Just as an example, in a format with no space constraints (and
with the ability to provide in-person tuition) I would go on to
teach layering the grid over "high", "medium" and "low"
potential patches of river. To do this the total size of that grid
needs to be modified accordingly. I would also explain how to
vary the rate at which the water was covered (i.e. learning
when to set sail and when to weigh anchor in the
river)and so on, and so on
In other words, the tutorial series hopefully contains as
good/much better information than is available in anybody
elses paid media or tuition. But it is still a first taste which

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shows the quality of the range of paid media content and
one-to-one coaching.
On top of that, it is a great way to make sure that I am only
pointing interested people towards paid products (I have zero
interest in trying to sell anything that is of no use/value to
you).
I can do that...
But back to the idea of high-level tactics. A top level angler
might say "I do X or Y high-level tactic already" - which may
well be true. They may well also be able to put on a top class
demonstration of catching fish using those methods.
But they haven't developed and shared methods to make it
learnable.
Being able to do it (and to demonstrate it) is brilliant; but it is
quite another thing to break it down into the simplest building
blocks and exercises. It is then necessary to build up the layers
of those building blocks in a structured course before other
people can use it.
That is why I am completely happy to pass on all the tuition in
this series even to our competitors. I know that John and I
have many more gears to go up into. I also know that we are
producing a library of paid content and teaching drills that will
explain techniques to a higher standard (and in the most easy
to digest way) than anything else on the market.
Because of all this, I know that anyone who follows our series
will significantly improve their fishing knowledge and skills. So
for any one showstopper that we give away, weve got
another five or more in hand.
You can start your journey along that structured pathway to
increased catches and better understanding of streams by
Clicking Here

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About the Author:
Dr. Paul Gaskell has fished since he was 6 years old and is a
professional freshwater biologist who has worked in both
academic research and practical conservation roles. He blames
angling for all his career choices so far - including his fly fishing
and tenkara guiding, magazine articles, books and ever-
growing video series

Find out more at www.discovertenkara.com, the site Paul runs

with fellow addict John Pearson.

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