S7, Ep 60: Mastering the Drift: Technical Trout Tactics for Summer Success with Mac Brown

Join Marvin Cash on this episode of Casting Angles featuring expert guide and instructor Mac Brown as they dive deep into mastering drift presentation techniques for summer trout fishing.

Mac Brown, renowned for his comprehensive fly fishing guide schools and technical expertise, shares game-changing strategies for achieving drag-free drifts when targeting rising fish across varying current speeds.

Learn how to position yourself strategically to avoid perpendicular approaches that create immediate drag, discover the "dancing line mend" technique that keeps your rod tip constantly moving to maintain perfect drifts up to 40 feet long or more and master the art of feeding line while mending to extend productive presentations.

Mac discusses how proper line management and rhythmic mending can transform a 3-foot drift into a 30-foot money drift, significantly increasing your catch rates during challenging summer conditions.

Whether you're targeting a specific riser on the far bank or working long sections of water with dry dropper rigs, these advanced presentation skills will elevate your technical game. Perfect for serious anglers looking to refine their approach during the slower summer months while building skills that will pay huge dividends when October and November bring increased trout activity.

Related Content

S7, Ep 20 - Practice Makes Perfect: Mac Brown on Mastering Casting Techniques

S6, Ep 145 - Navigating Winter Waters: Unconventional Strategies with Mac Brown

S7, Ep 41 - Navigating High Water: Strategies for Success with Mac Brown

S6, Ep 136 - From Arkansas to Appalachia: Fly Fishing with Mac Brown

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the articulate fly. We're
back with another castingangles with Mac Brown. Mac, how are
you?
I'm doing great. How are youdoing, Marvin?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And we're back again.
Gotta stay cool.
Gotta stay cool. Thetemperature's been rising a little
bit, hadn't it?
Yeah, it sure has. I thinkwe're. It's actually supposed to
cool off again towards the endof the week, but I think we're getting

(00:25):
ready to get into the dog daysof summer. We'll just have to figure
out how to deep into Septemberwe're going to get before it breaks.
But we were talking before westarted recording and we were having
kind of a. Kind of a fishingcasting nerd conversation about fishing
drifts over, over fish andkind of like two different ways to
basically work on that drift.And, you know, the situation we were

(00:46):
talking about is, you know, aswe move into summer and if you're
going to still fish for trout,it's going to get more and more technical.
Right. So you kind of have toreally kind of dial in your presentation
game. And we were talkingabout, you know, what do you do when
you see that fish risingregularly on the far side of the
river? And like, what's theplan of attack to get a good drift
to that fish?

(01:07):
Yeah, you know, that's a good.That'd be a good topic because a
specific target like thatthat's already coming up. You know,
we've got a lot of. There's alot of tools you can do with, you
know, like you could reach,you could pile it in. You could do
pile cast reach, man, youcould, you can add modules, you know,
one after the other on top theother like a, a pile cast followed

(01:28):
with a reach and then drag anddrop if you had to. Even you're just
looking at 24, 30 inches ofdrift with something like that scenario.
And then, then you have, youknow, the tools like where you're
talking about a short driftand is that an easy occurrence to
teach somebody? Absolutely,because you're only talking about
30, 40 inches. And then yougot the other extreme, like what

(01:52):
we use a lot here here in thispart of the country, like in Appalachia,
where we're looking at how dowe cover for the. What I call the
granddaddy drift, where itgoes 30, 40ft now with no drag. Now
there's a whole lot ofdifferent tools involved, you know,
of dancing line men's and alot of things to pull that off. So
I think when we talk aboutthese things, that's why that was

(02:12):
a fun conversation before westarted just, you know, talking about,
you know, there. There isn'ta. It's always variable, Marvin.
There's not a single, a singleanswer. That's what I think makes
it hard to get people to dothese things. It's like there's not
a singular thing, you know,it's like, what is it we're trying
to do? First of all, what'sthe goal?
Yeah, I mean, I would say too,that, you know, so, you know, regardless

(02:35):
of whether you're looking fora 40 or 50 or 60 foot drift or you're
fishing to a riser, I thinkthe first thing to do is to actually
think about to your point,what we're going to do. Right. And
then to try to positionyourself whether, you know, if you're
in a boat, it's a little biteasier, but if you're waiting, try
to first of all positionyourself to make the cast easier.
Right?

(02:56):
Yep.
And you know, you and I weretalking about, you know, if you've
got a riser across the riverfrom you, probably the hardest approach,
if you've got any meaningfulcurrent between you and that fish
on that soft water on the farside, is being perpendicular to that
fish. Cause you're going toget a lot of drag. Right. So the
first thing. So the firstthing you want to do. Right. Is move
downstream and make your lifea lot easier. Right.

(03:19):
Either either move downstreamor. Yeah. Or. Or be above it. One
of the other. But not, not somuch perpendicular.
Yeah. And so, you know, onceyou do that, you know, and you and
I were talking, you know,then, you know, it gets. It's a relatively
simple matter because, youknow, you're watching that fish,
you know, they generally tendto rise relatively regularly. And
so you basically start to planlike, you know, when, you know, you

(03:44):
want that fly kind of in thezone. Right. And to your point, you
know, if you've got room tocast beyond the fish, you can almost
kind of hold it almost likethe flies at a traffic light, and
then just lift your ride lineand pull it into the lane when you're
ready and let it drift. Right,Right. Or you can throw a reach,
man. Right. But, you know,whatever you need to do to kind of
keep that line that's in themiddle of the river, you know, so

(04:07):
if you're going to, you know,want to mend that downstream, if
you're fishing upstream tokeep that big belly out of line,
to solve that 24 to 36 inchproblem. But, you know, as you and
I were talking, what you weretalking about is like, well, hey,
let's talk about like all thecomp guys I fish with and all the,
you know, really, reallyserious anglers. They're much more
efficient because they'reactually maximizing the drift for

(04:27):
a longer distance.
Yeah. For a long, long periodof time. Which, and I guess the recipe
for that for those listeningis basically the like, I had a seven
year old today. That's whatled us into talking about this to
start with, with his daddy,the seven year old. I know that sounds
really young, like too littleto start, but I mean, he picked up

(04:48):
and implemented a lot of thisthat we're talking about just so
quick because that's what hethought it was. So you tell him this
is what you do and he could doit. And so the line, the rod tip
is never ever sitting still.And I told him, you know, when we
started out, we're doing drydropper this morning. And I said,
you know, as long as you'reconstantly repositioning that line
to pull off magic, becausearound this part of the country,

(05:10):
it's more about pulling offthese long drifts because you don't
know exactly where they arebecause you're not seeing fish coming
up left and right in a lot ofthese park streams, like out of the
national park. So I think thatreally clicked with him is saying,
look, we do this dancinglineman is when you just flip the
tip up over and over. So backto what you described about a fast

(05:31):
current and you got some softwater on the far side. You could
sit there and just flip thetip up over and over in a rhythm
and the current's not an issuethen because the line's always out
of the, out in the air morethan it is the water. Does that kind
of make sense? And that, thatway people start to get an idea that,
oh, that's how you pull off along float.
Yeah. And I think too, youknow, what you do is you're, you

(05:52):
know, we were talking aboutthis before recording. Really what
you're trying to do is to getthat the leader and the working part
of the fly line basicallyparallel to that current that you're
trying to match.
Yep. Yeah, that, that helps.That helps big time. Yeah.
And so, you know, literallyjust flipping those men's, where
you're basically flipping the,like the first part of that line
that's getting ready to dragand basically flipping it parallel

(06:13):
right to that current iswhat's going to help you keep that
longer drift.
Yeah. And then feeding, ofcourse, the feeding parts at the,
you know, after it starts toget below you, 20 degrees, 30 degrees
below you. And then theflipping it up, dancing line, men
with actually feeding line outwhile you're going. You know what
I mean? That's how we extendthese long drifts. I've had that
little kid today actuallyfeeding line out. That's how we were

(06:36):
able to go really long, longdistance, you know, down. And of
course, it paid off. Like, Imean, this is not the best time of
year, being in, what is it,July 7th or something today it's
like this whole lot betteractivity, you know, in the spring.
But if you pull off the floatslike we're talking about, just pull
off magic where it going along way and you have a dry dropper

(06:56):
on, good things are going tohappen. So he ended up picking up.
Picking up a lot of. A lot offish doing that just because that's
really the game. Like, thelonger you can keep it going, looking
natural, then the more fishyou're going to catch. It's that
simple. Like, if a drift onlygoes 3ft versus 30ft, who's going
to catch more fish? And it'slike that kid really understood that

(07:17):
the time Dave was over. And Ithink that was the fun part about
having a kid so young. A lotof people get bombed when a kid's
that little. But I actuallylike it because they tend to, if
you describe it right to them,they end up capitalizing on it pretty
quick.
Yeah. And I would say theother thing too, folks, is, you know,
if, you know, it's just. It'snot as trouty a time of year in our

(07:38):
neck of the woods. But thegreat thing is that kind of takes
the pressure off, you know,because these are things that are
really, really hard topractice if you're not on the water.
So if you go out to fish, youknow, thinking that I'm going to
work on these skills andcatching a fish as a bonus, it's
going to really, really paydividends in October and November
when the water cools off andthe fish are a lot more active.
That's right. It's good forskill development in the off season.

(08:02):
You can. Yeah, that's a goodway to think of it.
Yeah. And so, you know, beforeyou run and pick your. Pick your
son up who's lifeguarding, Idon't want you to get in trouble.
I know that you're guidingthis summer, and I know you've you've
got schools in the fall. Youwant to let folks know where they
can reach out and get in touchto get on the water with you before
the school starter to learnmore and get a slot in one of your
guide schools or one of yourskill schools this fall.

(08:24):
Sure that that's Easy with theURL MacBrownFlyfish.com or Fly Fishing
Guide School.com either onewill have links to both pages and
and all the different programscoming up with five day schools,
two day casting schools.There's a White river school there
in October that's a three daywet fly school with Davey Watton
and myself and yeah we'relooking forward to we're looking

(08:48):
forward to all those comingup. Gonna be a lot better time of
year.
Yeah and so you know folks asI always say this time of year first
of all stay cool but rememberto get out there and catch a few
tight lines everybody. Tightlines Matt tight lines.
Marvin.