About the Author

Joe Rotter

Joe is the "blogger in chief" here at Red's in addition to being our guide service manager and partner here at Red's. He is a father of 3 spunky children his wife Kelly can only be found fishing when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the fish are gobbling up dry flies.

In addition to being a fly fishing junkie, Joe is a hard core bowhunter, is a volunteer Hunter's Eductation Instructor, and loves riding horses with his kiddos. Joe still guides a small part of the time but spends most of his time working on web marketing, travel, and helping customers find the right tools and information for the job.

Powerhour Tip of the Week // Critical Tip for Dry Fly Fishing Shorelines

July 3, 2019

I'm now in my 20th season of guiding and after two decades you could say I've seen a lot of angling. Some good... lots and lots of bad haha. Its no different than a golf course. Just watch players go by at a public golf course. There are lots of bad golfers having lots of fun, nothing wrong with that but ike a scratch golfer a "scratch angler" is special. The angler that can delicately and accurately present a dry fly is a rare thing. It takes finesse, experience, and concentration.

As a guide I have commonly seen the same mistakes over and over again, and I'm often addressing major issues in casting and forced to take short cuts to generate success. Shortcuts are easy to take. Like too much nymph fishing, big chernoby ants that float no matter how bad your cast or mend are, and short sited approaches to correcting bad habits like telling an angler "what to do" instead of "why to do" certain things biomechanically.

While we as guides can certanly take some blame for putting fish in front of skill, when we only get to spend a single day with someone, and that someone only fishes a few days per year, it's tough to get anywhere in just a few hours! Additionally, its tough to teach casting while we are trying to catch trout. It's the equivalent of trying to teach an anxious bird dog how to sit while it smells a pheasant. The dog is out of its mind by that point... and so is the angler.

I'll do everything I can to help you prepare. Take a few minutes to digest and exectute the following advice and watch the video. Really think about how all this works and try to employ it next time you get the opporutnity.

Video Summary of this Strategy

Dry Flies Against a Shoreline

Assuming you are casting across faster currents to slower currents (most common as faster currents are typically found mid channel), you will want to present the fly downstream.

Powerhour Dry Fly tip of the Week_Moment(2)

Gear Setup for This Week's Powerhour Tip

G Loomis IMX Pro 8'6" 4 Weight Fly Rod

RIO Perception WF Floating Fly Line (5 Weight Line)

RIO Powerflex PLUS 9' 4 X Tapered Leader

Stonefly Dry Flies

Really enjoy watching your video's, but absolutely LOVE watching a family spending time together like this. Thank you, your beautiful wife and kids for sharing moments like these to keep us all inspired...
Nice Is that the Yakima?
Love the blog, videos, and all your tips and advice Joe. Your previous post on fishing the pullouts on your way to work helped me net a nice 19+inch fish on graduation weekend for EWU...even with limited water time on a family weekend you helped me have success. Watching how you work with your fishers (whether clients or family) should be required training for all guides - hat's off to you sir.
Nice to know, Joe. A great blog and video. I'll try this technique on the Yellowstone later this month during my trip to Bozeman.
Once again your video is outstanding. You do an excellent job of combining very helpful fly fishing info with practical fishing situations. In this case, fishing with your family which is the reality for many of us trying to get a little time on the water. Thanks for making my suffering while inside at work go by a little faster !!