To follow or not?

[elwyman]

After casting, I usually keep my rod tip pointing slightly upstream of where the line has landed and like to feel the line pulling against the tip as the flies swing round - I let the rod tip follow behind the line as it swings round, but keep some tension in the line.

The gille I fished with the other day said I should follow the line round with the rod tip, which meant the line wasn't under tension - I think he said this to get the line to sink deeper, which makes sense.

Any thoughts on this? The first method works pretty well for me, and I feel it will give the flies more life.

[Fruin]

Something I read recently set me thinking about the way that I fish for spring fish.
If you cast the line out and then move your rod parallel to the bank, as one often does for summer fishing, the fly will be lively as it is swinging on a wider arc and moving faster. This is not always the best approach for cold water fishing.
It was suggested that you cast the line out and let the line swing with the rod perpendicular to the bank, reducing the arc and letting the fly swing round slower. Then comes the issue of fishing the extra bit of water between the final position of the fly and the point directly downstream of you. If you swing the rod round then the fly will swing in towards the bank, but will also drop back by a full rod length. It is suggested that you should swing the rod towards the bank, but, raise the rod as you do so, to stop the fly drifting back. This could also be achieved by hand-lining as you swing the rod towards the bank. This makes a lot of sense to me and the swing of the fly can still be altered by mends and hand-lining.
I would think that the ghillie was suggesting following the line as it will be a halfway house in that the fly will swing slower and sink a little lower and the gradual drifting of the rod means that the fly does not drop back suddenly.

[kercock]

Pretty much I use a floating line with various sinktips. I cast slightly downsream and put in as big an upstream mend as possible keeping the rodtip almost at right angles to the the bank initialy,adding mends,if needed in order to keep the fly out in the river as long as possible only moving the rod tip in line with the fly,Allowing it as close as possible to my bank on the dangle ,handlining for a couple of yards before pulling in the rest of the running line to recast.. Sorry, I seem to have made it seem complicated but it's just a question of keeping the fly, fishing out there and as deep as possible for as long as possible !
Mending the line is crucial in slowing the speed of the fly I reckon.