For all Fly Fishing Beginners learning about drag, what it is and why it is not a good thing is a big step towards success as an angler. It is also one of the first basic fly fishing lessons all beginners should learn because without it you’re going to fail badly.

When you are fishing on a lake you can typically let your line lie in the same place and wait for a fish to come to you. But in a river it’s a different ball game. As soon as your line touches the water it’s carried downstream by the current.

As the line is pulled towards you, you need to pull the slack line back through the rod, and let it lay on the ground or water beside you. This needs to be done at the same speed as the water bringing your fly towards you. If you don’t then you will have a massive arc of line being pulled down stream. So what’s wrong with that?

Well that’s a very bad thing as it creates “drag” on the fly. It also makes it hard to pick the line off the water, ready for recasting back up stream. There are some advanced techniques that can be used to get your line airborne again without pulling it back in, but that’s far beyond the skills of a beginner.

So drag is a bad thing but what really is it?

Well when you are fly fishing on a stream or river, you want your fly to move naturally with the current, fish are very, very smart, if they notice their food not moving naturally then they are unlikely to strike it. As your line drifts downstream it can pull or should I say “drag” your fly along with it especially if there are currents moving at different speeds. That looks most unnatural and is why drag is a very bad thing.

In these situations then a technique called “mending” is used to stop your fly from being dragged by different speed currents. Mending is the moving of your line while it still lies in the water. This is done by small flicks of the rod.

Let’s make an example where the fly is in slow water but the line is in a faster current. The faster water will obviously pull the line downstream faster than the slow water is carrying the fly. So in this example you would flip the line towards the slower water several times. This will put slack loops in the line giving a buffer of slack curves between the fast and slow water and also helps get the line out of the faster moving current.

The combination of the slack line and trying to get your line out of the faster current gives your fly a greater chance of drifting naturally. Mending like anything with fly fishing takes practice but it doesn’t take long to get the basics of mending down pact.

So if you can take control and eliminate drag from your presentation you will be well on your way to success as an angler.

Duncan Mcleod is an avid Fly Fishing enthusiast and If after mastering drag, you still cant seem to land that trophy fish or even get your cast to land in the water then go grab my free fly fishing beginners ebook titled: 101 Fly Fishing Tips. You may even find a secret or two.

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