Keep your fly dressed.   There are really a couple of different but related issues here. Make sure after each fish you catch or miss that you take a moment to examine your fly.  Check to see if the wing(s) have rotated out of position or the hackle is damaged.  You’ll be surprised how often that can happen.   Dry off your fly using either drying crystals, an Amadou drying pad or simply blow on the fly and blot it on your shirt sleeve.

A little floatant is all you need.  My experience is that most of us put far more floatant on then we need.  In fact, we may defeat the purpose by adding so much we keep our flies from riding properly on the water.  Whether you use one of the gels or a paste, put just get enough on your index finger and thumb so that they “glisten”.  When you get ready to put floatant on, turn the fly upside down so the bottom is exposed as this is the part that is in contact with the water.  Make sure this is the part that gets a thin coating of floatant.  The wings aren’t in contact with the water, so they really do not need to be treated.

Do not cast for show. Work on your short-range casts when you practice.  Most of the fish we catch are within 20 to 30 feet of us and not 50 plus feet away.  When you deduct 8 or 9 feet of rod length, you may only be casting 12 feet of line and leader.  Short distance casting is not something that is stressed by most instructors and it can be challenging.  For short-range casting, you might think about over-weighting your rod by one-line weight.  It will make those short-range casts easier and more accurate. Many of us tend to make much longer casts than we need.  In fact, we often end up casting over the fish.  Besides lining fish, long casts greatly increase the likelihood of drag problems as your line is going to be crossing more current seams.  Far too many people don’t manage their line well enough even on short casts and with long casts they end up with a lot of slack that must be moved to set the hook.  Or, because of slack, they can’t get enough energy into the line to make another long cast.  Rather than make a long cast, keep making shorter casts as you move up the stream or river.

Don’t fall in love with the drift.  This tendency goes hand in hand with the long cast tendency and is most prevalent for those who often fish in crowed locations and/or only have a specific section of river to fish. Once you have claimed your territory, your casting length and drift defines the boundary. Long drifts almost inevitably start with casting farther than needed and end up in line management issues. Under most dry fly situations keep your drift about 6 to 8 feet in length.  My general rule is that my drift should only be about the length I can shoot the line forward on my cast.  In some cases, such as swinging soft-hackles, I may let my drift extend in length. However, I try to avoid these situations by finding a better casting position.  Short drifts are better.  After each of your shorter drifts, take a couple of steps forward and start the process over again.  You will cover the same amount of water, but your line management will be much less of a problem.

Be systematic in your coverage. Be systematic when you are fishing a section where there are no well-defined holding areas and fish could be almost anyplace. Using a grid or fan shaped pattern cover the water with a sequence of casts effectively covering as much of the water as possible. After your first pass, if you are confident that the water holds fish, change your fly and repeat this sequence of casts one or two more times along each line, often making a few extra casts at a location that looks particularly promising.

Let a less than perfect cast lie.   If your cast does not end up exactly where you wanted it to go, the natural tendency is to immediately re-cast, but resist.  Unless the fly lands way off the mark in an area you have already fished or into an area where there is very little likelihood of holding a fish, fish out the drift.  Ripping your fly off the water has a better than average chance of spooking any fish nearby.  Stay calm, fish out the drift and think about what might have caused the problem (i.e. wind). You might even be surprised at how many fish you catch from areas that you did not intentionally cast to. Then, make your next cast land on the mark.

Don’t cast to a rise.   I don’t mean just blind cast rather than fish to an actively feeding fish.  What I mean is to make a cast that will put your fly in the right position for a take. Typically, a trout does not go straight up from its holding position to take a fly. Rather, the trout will drift up and back to take a fly. After taking the fly the trout moves down and forward to its original holding location. That backwards drift will often be one, two or more feet.   If you cast into the rise your fly will land a couple feet behind the feeding trout. Cast your fly at least 3 feet above the rise to be sure your fly is upstream in the holding location of the fish. But remember, only place your fly and leader over/above the fish as line landing or passing over a trout will often cause it to stop feeding.

Pick the best casting position.  In some streams/rivers, where there are relatively few variances in the current across the stream, you can successfully use an “across and down” drift without having to worry too much about drag. However, in most waterbodies the flow is turbulent, and the current is nowhere near laminar or the same all the way across the width. In turbulent waterbodies an across the stream drift just won’t work without having to make almost continuous mends. Try and position yourself where you can cast from below and just off to the side of where you expect a fish to rise. One obvious reason is that since a trout’s field of vision is a little less than 320 degrees, you will be in the “blind” spot.  Also, being slightly off-line will reduce your likelihood of lining the fish and you will have the fewest conflicting currents to deal with and should give a better drift.