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

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Mac Brown - Guide and Casting Instructor at Mac Brown Fly Fishing Guide School (Appalachian Region)

In this episode: Casting expert Mac Brown shares advanced drift management techniques for technical trout presentations. Topics include positioning strategy for cross-river targets, dancing line mends for extended drifts and systematic skill development approaches.

Key fishing techniques covered: • Dancing line mends for extended drifts • Pile cast and reach mend combinations • Downstream positioning strategy • Feeding line during drift extensions • Rod tip manipulation for drag-free presentations

Location focus: Appalachian streams and national park waters

Target species: Trout (summer technical fishing conditions)

Equipment discussed: Dry dropper setups, various mending techniques, rod tip control methods

Key questions answered: • How to fish rising trout across strong current • How to extend drifts from 3 feet to 30+ feet • How to position for technical presentations • How to teach advanced casting to beginners

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in competition-level casting techniques and technical summer trout fishing

Marvin Cash00:00:04

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the articulate fly. We're back with another casting angles with Mac Brown. Mac, how are you?

Mac Brown00:00:11

I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?

Marvin Cash00:00:12

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And we're back again. Gotta stay cool.

Mac Brown00:00:17

Gotta stay cool. The temperature's been rising a little bit, hadn't it?

Marvin Cash00:00:20

Yeah, it sure has. I think we're.It's actually supposed to cool off again towards the end of the week, but I think we're getting ready to get into the dog days of summer. We'll just have to figure out how to deep into September we're going to get before it breaks.But we were talking before we started recording and we were having kind of a. Kind of a fishing casting nerd conversation about fishing drifts over, over fish and kind of like two different ways to basically work on that drift.And, you know, the situation we were talking about is, you know, as we 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 to really kind of dial in your presentation game.And we were talking about, you know, what do you do when you see that fish rising regularly on the far side of the river? And like, what's the plan of attack to get a good drift to that fish?

Mac Brown00:01:07

Yeah, you know, that's a good. That'd be a good topic because a specific target like that that's already coming up. You know, we've got a lot of.There's a lot of tools you can do with, you know, like you could reach, you could pile it in.You could do pile cast reach, man, you could, you can add modules, you know, one after the other on top the other like a, a pile cast followed with a reach and then drag and drop if you had to. Even you're just looking at 24, 30 inches of drift with something like that scenario.And then, then you have, you know, the tools like where you're talking about a short drift and is that an easy occurrence to teach somebody? Absolutely, because you're only talking about 30, 40 inches.And then you got the other extreme, like what we use a lot here here in this part of the country, like in Appalachia, where we're looking at how do we cover for the. What I call the granddaddy drift, where it goes 30, 40ft now with no drag.Now there's a whole lot of different tools involved, you know, of dancing line men's and a lot of things to pull that off. So I think when we talk about these things, that's why that was a fun conversation before we started just, you know, talking about, you know, there.There isn't a. It's always variable, Marvin. There's not a single, a single answer. That's what I think makes it hard to get people to do these 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's the goal?

Marvin Cash00:02:32

Yeah, I mean, I would say too, that, you know, so, you know, regardless of whether you're looking for a 40 or 50 or 60 foot drift or you're fishing to a riser, I think the first thing to do is to actually think about to your point, what we're going to do. Right.And then to try to position yourself whether, you know, if you're in a boat, it's a little bit easier, but if you're waiting, try to first of all position yourself to make the cast easier. Right?

Mac Brown00:02:56

Yep.

Marvin Cash00:02:57

And you know, you and I were talking about, you know, if you've got a riser across the river from you, probably the hardest approach, if you've got any meaningful current between you and that fish on that soft water on the far side, is being perpendicular to that fish. Cause you're going to get a lot of drag. Right. So the first thing. So the first thing you want to do. Right.Is move downstream and make your life a lot easier. Right.

Mac Brown00:03:19

Either either move downstream or. Yeah. Or. Or be above it. One of the other. But not, not so much perpendicular.

Marvin Cash00:03:26

Yeah. And so, you know, once you do that, you know, and you and I were talking, you know, then, you know, it gets.It's a relatively simple matter because, you know, you're watching that fish, you know, they generally tend to rise relatively regularly. And so you basically start to plan like, you know, when, you know, you want that fly kind of in the zone. Right.And to your point, you know, if you've got room to cast beyond the fish, you can almost kind of hold it almost like the flies at a traffic light, and then just lift your ride line and 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 the middle of the river, you know, so if you're going to, you know, want to mend that downstream, if you're fishing upstream to keep that big belly out of line, to solve that 24 to 36 inch problem.But, you know, as you and I were talking, what you were talking about is like, well, hey, let's talk about like all the comp guys I fish with and all the, you know, really, really serious anglers. They're much more efficient because they're actually maximizing the drift for a longer distance.

Mac Brown00:04:29

Yeah. For a long, long period of time. Which, and I guess the recipe for that for those listening is basically the like, I had a seven year old today.That's what led us into talking about this to start with, with his daddy, the seven year old.I know that sounds really young, like too little to start, but I mean, he picked up and implemented a lot of this that we're talking about just so quick because that's what he thought it was. So you tell him this is what you do and he could do it. 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 dry dropper this morning.And I said, you know, as long as you're constantly repositioning that line to pull off magic, because around this part of the country, it's more about pulling off these long drifts because you don't know exactly where they are because you're not seeing fish coming up left and right in a lot of these park streams, like out of the national park. So I think that really clicked with him is saying, look, we do this dancing lineman is when you just flip the tip up over and over.So back to what you described about a fast current and you got some soft water on the far side.You could sit there and just flip the tip up over and over in a rhythm and the current's not an issue then because the line's always out of the, out in the air more than it is the water. Does that kind of make sense? And that, that way people start to get an idea that, oh, that's how you pull off a long float.

Marvin Cash00:05:49

Yeah. And I think too, you know, what you do is you're, you know, we were talking about this before recording.Really what you're trying to do is to get that the leader and the working part of the fly line basically parallel to that current that you're trying to match.

Mac Brown00:06:02

Yep. Yeah, that, that helps. That helps big time. Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:06:06

And so, you know, literally just flipping those men's, where you're basically flipping the, like the first part of that line that's getting ready to drag and basically flipping it parallel right to that current is what's going to help you keep that longer drift.

Mac Brown00:06:18

Yeah. And then feeding, of course, the feeding parts at the, you know, after it starts to get below you, 20 degrees, 30 degrees below you.And then the flipping it up, dancing line, men with actually feeding line out while you're going. You know what I mean? That's how we extend these long drifts. I've had that little kid today actually feeding line out.That's how we were able to go really long, long distance, you know, down. And of course, it paid off.Like, I mean, this is not the best time of year, being in, what is it, July 7th or something today it's like this whole lot better activity, you know, in the spring.But if you pull off the floats like we're talking about, just pull off magic where it going a long way and you have a dry dropper on, good things are going to happen. So he ended up picking up. Picking up a lot of. A lot of fish doing that just because that's really the game.Like, the longer you can keep it going, looking natural, then the more fish you're going to catch. It's that simple. Like, if a drift only goes 3ft versus 30ft, who's going to catch more fish?And it's like that kid really understood that the time Dave was over. And I think that was the fun part about having a kid so young. A lot of people get bombed when a kid's that little.But I actually like it because they tend to, if you describe it right to them, they end up capitalizing on it pretty quick.

Marvin Cash00:07:32

Yeah. And I would say the other thing too, folks, is, you know, if, you know, it's just. It's not as trouty a time of year in our neck of the woods.But the great thing is that kind of takes the pressure off, you know, because these are things that are really, really hard to practice if you're not on the water.So if you go out to fish, you know, thinking that I'm going to work on these skills and catching a fish as a bonus, it's going to really, really pay dividends in October and November when the water cools off and the fish are a lot more active.

Mac Brown00:07:58

That's right. It's good for skill development in the off season. You can. Yeah, that's a good way to think of it.

Marvin Cash00:08:04

Yeah. And so, you know, before you run and pick your. Pick your son up who's lifeguarding, I don't want you to get in trouble.I know that you're guiding this summer, and I know you've you've got schools in the fall.You want to let folks know where they can reach out and get in touch to get on the water with you before the school starter to learn more and get a slot in one of your guide schools or one of your skill schools this fall.

Mac Brown00:08:24

Sure that that's Easy with the URL MacBrownFlyfish.com or Fly Fishing Guide School.com either one will have links to both pages and and all the different programs coming up with five day schools, two day casting schools.There's a White river school there in October that's a three day wet fly school with Davey Watton and myself and yeah we're looking forward to we're looking forward to all those coming up. Gonna be a lot better time of year.

Marvin Cash00:08:52

Yeah and so you know folks as I always say this time of year first of all stay cool but remember to get out there and catch a few tight lines everybody. Tight lines Matt tight lines.

Mac Brown00:09:02

Marvin.