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For this technique you want to use a floating line. It generally refer a 4wt or 5wt rod for smaller rivers and streams and a 6wt rod with a 7wt floating line for bigger rivers, bigger flies, and bigger fish.
When I fish a floating line on a river, I tend to pick targets on the water to cast to, such at a riffle, under a log, under a cut bank, shadows, and edges of current seams.
I strip out a bunch of line and shake some out of the rod close to me. I start casting and stripping out more line while I'm casting. I also do my best to keep the fly off the water until it is within range of the target. On every cast, I aim a couple feet above the water so the line will come tight above the water. (If the line comes tight on the water, the line, leader, and fly will slap the water and scare the crap out of any nearby fish.) When I have almost completed the forward stroke on the last cast, I let go of the line and let the line in the air pull out any slack. The line should come tight in the air and drop to the water. This is where you really have to watch the fly. You want to keep the fly drifting downstream and and in most cases, avoid drag on the fly at all costs. (When the fly starts to drag, it creates a V shaped wake in the water behind it.)
If there is one thing to remember about dry fly fishing in a river it is this: Most of the time, drag is bad! Your fly should be drifting downstream as the same speed as the surrounding water. This means that your fly should not make any disturbance on the water. The best way to get an idea of what your fly should look like is the observe flies that are emerging in the surface film of the river you are fishing. (If there aren't any flies hatching around you, then probably you shouldn't be fishing a dry!) There are a few exceptions to the "No drag" rule. One case is when when fishing a caddis fly or a grasshopper or something else that doesn't necessarily want to be on the water. In this case you'll slap the fly on the water, you'll have drag, splashing, etc. This technique is covered in the steelhead section of river fishing.
When your line reaches the end of the drift and comes tight from the current and starts to drag, slowly lift your rod tip and recast the line to start another drift.
