The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Find a riffle that drops quickly into deep water. Put your fly in the riffle then stack some mends immediately above it. You want the fly tumbling along the bottom then dropping into the hole. The grabs are almost always in that transitional zone when the fly is dropping from relatively shallow, turbulent water into the deeper calm. For such a big pattern (and frequently big fish) the grabs can be very subtle. Sharp, sharp, sharp hooks and tighten up on anything out of the ordinary. You'll have slack in the system so try to look INTO the water for a flash of a turning fish, boil of silt, or white mouth. G'luck!