Fly Fishing: Don't Burst My Bubble

Fly fishing is defined in what manner? In
the classic sense, it means using all the specialized
tackle and equipment that marks the sport as different.
But, at base, it just means fishing with an artificial
fly. How you deliver that fly, as many states decree,
is a matter of preference. If you opt, for instance,
for a bubble & fly and a spinning rod, nobody should
have anything negative to say about it.

A correspondent from an internet message board was having a little trouble. He’s new to fishing, and has been trying to flyfish using one of those plastic bubbles and a spinning reel . He had some serious questions about technique. But it was his opening remark that got me.

“I know it’s not real flyfishing,” he began.

I kind of resent that. No, not that he said it. What bothers me is the prevailing attitude that makes his conclusion understandable. The idea that unless you’re using the “proper” equipment---in this case a flyrod and reel, fly line, and all the accoutrements of the game---you are somehow a second class fisherman. And that what you’re doing is not really fly fishing. Frankly, I find that idea repugnant at best.

It’s just not so. I love fly fishing, as many of you know. Indeed, given any sort of choice I reach for a fly rod first, sometimes handicapping myself with that choice. But my $700 fly rod and $60 fly line doesn’t make my style any more real than his spinning rod and casting bubble. “You’re fishing with a fly,” I told him in no uncertain terms. “And that means you are fly fishing.”

Apparently, my feelings are shared by fish & wildlife officials. Go to the fly fishing-only water on Michigan’s Pere Marquette River, for instance, and the anglers using spinning tackle and casting gear often outnumber those using traditional fly fishing equipment. No, they are not breaking the rules. According to the Michigan DNR, they are perfectly legal.

That aside, let’s take a look at the problems my young friend was having.

Primarily, he was having trouble with presentation. He’d cast out, and the fly would land behind the bubble; or land in a twisty pile of line. So his first question was, of course, “what am I doing wrong?”

To understand the bubble & fly technique you have to first understand the basic mechanics of spin casting. They’re simple enough. You use a heavy weight to pull the line off a non-rotating reel. Because friction and inertia are all but eliminated, this allows you to use light lines and cast incredible distances.

During a perfect cast, all the energy is used up while the weight (or lure) is still in the air. It then settles to the water. So far so good.

What many fishermen fail to realize, however, is that during the cast the weight is leading the terminal tackle. If you’re fishing live bait, this is no big deal. When the casting energy is used up the weight, in the form of a bobber, hits the water and the leader & bait sink below it.

My young friend, however, was trying to cast a dry fly. For him, the ideal situation is for the fly to float, high and dry, in front of the casting bubble. Instead, it was landing behind it, often in a tangled mess.

To correct that you have to cause the leader and fly to “turn over.” That means you want it to form a loop that rolls open, and passes the bubble. There is then a straight link from the bubble to the fly.

This is, by the way, exactly what happens when fly fishing with traditional fly tackle. In that case, the entire line and leader form the loop. Keep in mind that with fly gear the line is the weight, and your goal is to have the leader roll out past it.

To make that happen with a casting bubble you have to simulate the same energy pattern as a fly line. It’s not hard, but does take a little practice.

When making your cast, cup the reel with your off hand. Then, just before all the casting energy is used up, sharply clasp the line against the reel. With a fly line this is called “checking.”

What happens when you do that is that the bubble stops suddenly. But the leader and fly, in the best tradition of Newton’s laws of motion, continue past it. The whole thing then settles to the water, in the configuration you’re looking for.

The heavier the weight, the more likely it is for this energy transference to take place. Which is why many bubble & fly fishermen fill the bubble with water. That adds casting weight. But, because a water-filled bubble has neutral density, it doesn’t sink. Better than water for this, however, is to use mineral oil. You get almost as much additional weight, but the bubble will continue to float.

Filling those bubbles, incidentally, is one of those things that’s easier in the telling than the doing. I’ve always found that an eye dropper facilitates the process because of the pressure it exerts. Trying to fill them merely by dipping them in the water is an exercise in futility because air in the bubble prevents the water from entering.

My young friend ran into another problem. “The few times I get it to work,” he complained, “I drown the fly trying to retrieve it. Every time I move the fly it sinks and gets waterlogged.”

There are two factors at work here. First off, a bubble & fly actually works best with a subsurface fly. Nymphs, streamers, and wet flies are ideal, because bubble movement has little negative effects on sunken flies.

With dry fishing flies, slow is the secret. I mean slow. Put a few extra Os in and sing it: Sloooooow! Like ‘lassas in January.

If you have to provide movement to the fly, best bet is to not use the reel to retrieve it. Instead, gently use the rod tip to ease the bubble along the surface (another reason why oil works better than water). Then use the reel just to take up slack.

Of course, if you’re fishing moving water, you shouldn’t apply any movement at all. Just let the fly & bubble dead-drift in the current, exactly as you would with a conventional fly rod.