Upstream and dry.
These are rules to fish by if you’re chasing trout and grayling on England’s storied chalk streams. As my friend Todd Moen points out in the video below, the anglers who pursue fish in these waters are deeply serious about the craft, and about the rules. Think about it. If you were told you could only cast to rising fish with a single dry fly—no dropper, no soft-hackle on the swing, no streamer to get the attention of the big boys—how good do you think you’d get at putting a fly right where you wanted it?
Pretty damned good, I’d say.
Enjoy a glimpse of fly fishing from the birthplace of dry-fly angling. It’s easy to call it “snooty,” or “tweedy,” but until you experience it, the critique rings hollow. Fly fishers are really good at making fishing more challenging on themsleves and their brethren. That practice, just like the rules that keep flies dry and anglers eyes looking upstream, also began on these storied waters.
— Chris Hunt