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Please read this article in conjunction with the companion article:

• Fly fishing tips

This is the first river fishing technique that I was introduced to and is probably the most widely used technique used by recreational fly fishers in Australia and New Zealand and the UK.

It involves approaching the water to be fished from down stream and casting up stream and then recovering and mending line to avoid leader and fly drag whilst keeping in relative contact with your fly or team of flies but without leading the flies as they drift down with the current. One of the main benefits of this system is that you are below the fish and the fish will generally be facing away from you because they hold facing into the current. If you keep in the shade, wear colours that camouflage into the background, use available cover and approach with stealth and cunning you can often get quite close to fish that are holding in the current. On the downside, with this technique, it is sometimes difficult to keep in contact with the flies and at the same time allow the flies to drift down without any drag and without leading them. And of course depending on leader lengths, casting techniques, access and other considerations it is sometimes easy to line fish or you just can't negotiate a drift that will cover the fish. Casting only the leader over new water and casting at a slight angle to the current can minimize the problem of lining fish.

Gear set ups are generally quite simple consisting of a tapered or straight leader with the fly or a team of flies at the business end. The longer the leader the more chance there is of introducing drag and slack line in the drift and spooking fish or missing takes and of course the shorter the leader the more chance there is of lining fish. Traditional up stream fly fishing can be used to fish nymphs, dries, spiders wee wets or or a mix of various fly types. It is probably best suited to fishing dry flies as at most times you can see drag and adjust your drift by mending the fly line. I normally only fish one fly when fishing on the surface as often I find that an extra fly or two will spook fish and increase the incidence of line and fly drag. Drag also occurs with wet flies and its important to control drifts by following the drift with the rod tip and making appropriate line mends. For most of the waters I fish "up stream" I find that a 8 to 10 foot #3 or #6 weight rod does the trick with leaders just shorter than the rod. The use of sink tips and sinking lines can of course be incorporated in fishing up stream but by in large a floating line is used.

When fishing nymphs, we wets or spiders its often helpful to incorporate an indicator in your system. The indicator can be almost anything that floats, doesn't interfere with the cast too much and is visible to the angler. A buoyant dry fly incorporated in the team of flies works well as an indicator but of course unless there is a chance of fish taking the dry fly this a sacrifice of one of your "bait" flies. If using a dry as an indicator put it between 3 to 6 feet down the leader depending on the rod length and then suspend your bait fly or flies below that. It's important to ensure that the "bait" fly or flies light enough not to sink the indicator yet heavy enough to get the nymph or nymphs down into the zone where fish are feeding. This can of course be just below the surface or bouncing along the bottom or any where in between. Trial and error and of course experience help determining the set p to suit the conditions and the depth fish are feeding at. If you want to fish your flies bouncing along the bottom a good rule of thumb is that the dropper below the indicator should be 1.5 to twice the depth of the water depending on the water flow. Popular alternative indicators include a coloured section incorporated into the fly line at the time of manufacture, a bright coloured fly line, a bright coloured braided loop on the end of the fly line or a short section of coloured monofilament incorporated into the leader set up. Whilst you can see that there is no drag on the surface when fishing dry flies it is often difficult to determine if you are really in contact with the suspended fly or flies and of course if you are fishing at the depth fish are holding.

Unless you have good line control up stream fishing with one or two nymphs or wee wets without an indicator can be a problem on most waters. Having said that if the drift is such that you can manage to keep in contact with the flies or even lead the flies ever so little then it can be very productive. Keep this last option available particularly when fishing slower water with a uniform current.

Other river fly techniques:

Upstream fly fishing - contemporary approach to wet under dry (duo and trio)

Across and down (often called down and across or swinging flies)

Short line nymphing (including Polish nymphing, Spanish nymphing, and of course Czech nymphing).

French leader / longer leader

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