Author Topic: Fishing wets! (Read 3317 times)

Mark Hanes · « **on:** February 21, 2009, 03:23:37 PM »

I have always used this as a way of catching trout. this year I am going to really up my game and use wet flies more. So what do you guys think of this often over looked tactic? It is a fun and active way to catch trout.

Dejon Hamann · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2009, 08:57:19 PM »

PA, I'm glad you led off the board. Fishing Wets is like a whole different philosophical section of the discipline of fly fishing. It's like the best of spey fishing and nymphing combined. And there are so many more variations than down and across. The Brits are experts at it - wish I could get a few days with some of our "legends" across the pond. One thing I love about many Wets are the absolute simplicity of the patterns ... and yet they are continually the most difficult to tie. There's something about proportioning a smidgen of dubbing and hackle on a hook that is ridiculously difficult... I mean to really get it perfect. In relation, tying a BC-Hopper as laid out in the book is a walk in the park:)

What kind of patterns are you tying and utilizing on western PA rivers?

Mark Hanes · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2009, 09:28:25 PM »

I really like soft hackles due to an abundance of caddis flys on the streams I fish. Picket Pins can be deadly and really I trying to get the winged wets like the Leadwing Coachmen down pat. You are right there are o ton of pattern out there and really that is part of what I will be experimenting with throughout the year.

I really hope to tie some of Leisenring and Hindy's patterns to the test as well I have the an original edition of "The Art of Tying the Wet Fly" It is really one of the treasures of my collection espically since it has a family history behind the ownership of the book. His patterns are mostly stuff from the UK and Ireland with a few of his own. I hope to tie some of his stuff.

Also i hope to use some of the really flashy brook trout wets that can really almost have the beauty of salmon flies when tied correctly. Its all just a learning process and I am going to dedicate a lot of time to becoming proficient at it. Besides a nice picture of a trout with a wet fly in its lip just seems to have a little extra to it.

Don Strandberg · « **Reply #3 on:** January 30, 2010, 06:47:04 PM »

Mark, you mentioned. The Pickett Pin, and the Leadwing Coachman. Two of my favorite patterns. I will add the Hares Ear. I have so much faith in these 3 patterns. I actually have a rod strung year round with a cast of these flies.

Just a few thoughts on wet fly fishing..
You can swing them, you can dead drift, you can strip them. You can even make them dance the tango.
The strange thing is. Sometimes they just aint going to work. Saying that it is still a wide open ball game. You are limited only by your imagination. When working drys, or nypmhs. We mostly have one thing on are mind. DEAD DRIFT. With wets the tactics and combination of tactics are endless. It is an never ending learning curve. It may be the most complex form of fishing, or the simplest. I suppose it is what you make it.
Just a few tips, I have learned over the last 38 years.
Do not cast across current lanes. Your line will be heading in 4 differant directions.
Break a wide riffle or run in 1/2. Fish close down to the end of the run. Then wade out and fish the far bank.
Tie some slack in to that leader. After all this is mostly a tight line game. Anything you can do to get that trout to just suck in the fly will result in more fish landed. The hard wet fly strike you hear about and felt is cool. But its mostly a lost fish off of the strike.
You, will evenatually get a 6 sense of how your fly is fishing. THATS WHEN THE FUN REALLY BEGINS.

Sorry for being long winded

Paul Bourcq · « **Reply #4 on:** January 30, 2010, 11:20:58 PM »

The same rods we euro nymph with are my favorite wet fly rods. Ive learned a high rod and line mending to control swing speed (if fishing down and across) is the most important thing for me.

I fish them upstream sometimes, which is how north country spiders were intended to be fished.

I also do a straight downstream approach. I use it around bends, and logjams, and to spooky fish. I feed line out a little at a time and it creates a "mini swing" each time.

I agree that sometimes wets arent the ticket but they can pull fish when other methods dont work....its a good searching method to find fish too.

Mark I tie the picket pin with a fat stiff pheasant tail. It leaves a little wake behind it of water/air bubbles. Makes a hell of a bob fly too.

Nick Naclerio · « **Reply #5 on:** January 31, 2010, 01:20:46 AM »

Paul is dead on, with all of us buying Euro rods chances are you already have a good wet fly rod.

When I got my Hardy setup Torrey set me up with a DT Cortland 444 line and I think that line makes a world of differnce for fishing wets. Most of the lines we use are way to stiff and make working the flies much more difficult. I've heard the Snobee lines are supposed to be the best for fishing wets but I've never used them.

My favorite way to fish wets is the dead drift down stream method by far. I love how you watch the belly in your line straighten out and the fish pretty much hooks its self (Watch the Oliver Edwards clip I linked on here somewhere). My next favorite is the upstream method which is very similar to French nymphing and good fun to fish. The dead drift across stream method I haven't done enough to really comment on but the few times I did it I caught fish and had a good time doing it.

Reid Bacon · « **Reply #6 on:** January 31, 2010, 07:33:04 AM »

Wet flies are a great way to catch fish and certainly a way that I overlook too often. I'm partial to soft hackles and spiders. Their success during many hatches can be hard to replicate with other means. I really like hares ears also you can't really go wrong with it in various sizes, and colors. I will add the march browns also as they too have a broad application range and I always have little olive/starlings in size 16-20. A chart/black softie saved the day last weekend when a small midge emergence took place on the swift.

Don Strandberg · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2010, 07:21:29 PM »

The soft hackle to my eye. When I soak it in my mouth. Looks like nothing. But looks like everthing. Nothing is tied in to it to give it away. Just perfect.
I do not do very good with soft hackles??? I do not know why?

Mark Hanes · « **Reply #8 on:** February 02, 2010, 09:43:06 AM »

No luck with soft hackles? That is strange I have better luck with soft hackles espically during Caddis hatches.

Todd Oishi · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2010, 12:59:59 PM »

I tend to agree with Mark.

I find that fishing soft-hackles is often one of the easiest methods to teach anglers that lack the ability to detect the subtle takes that are common with many Euro-style and conventional nymphing techniques.

It's also a great way to introduce newbies to the art of fly fishing in moving water...

Nick Naclerio · « **Reply #10 on:** February 02, 2010, 01:05:46 PM »

Although not the proper way to fish soft hackles, I have good luck with them as a top dropper on my Euro rig when there are insects emerging.

Don Strandberg · « **Reply #11 on:** February 03, 2010, 08:14:16 PM »

I agree. But for what ever reason?

?? I do not do well.

Brenton Greubel · « **Reply #12 on:** February 05, 2010, 06:40:27 PM »

That Wet Flies DVD is pretty great. Actually ordered it on Netflix awhile back. They need to get the Vladi Euronymphing DVD!

Mark Hanes · « **Reply #13 on:** February 06, 2010, 07:40:41 PM »

So soft hackles.
I have found they really seem to work well in faster water. I think it must be because they appear to be alive and the trout don't get much time to inspect them. Also during the early Grammon Caddis hatch they can be deadly. I will have to share my pattern that I used before the hatch starts.

Corey Sullivan · « **Reply #14 on:** February 23, 2010, 12:28:02 AM »

Great stuff. I have good luck with the softhackles and wets-on the swing when fish are striking emergers or fished in a 2 fly rig drifting in the current above a weighted stone or similar nymph as mentioned.

Here is a softy with the sulphur/olive combo for contrast. Not really a traditional wet but gets it done around here.

Aaron Laing · « **Reply #15 on:** June 02, 2010, 01:40:52 PM »

It's funny how most people (and I'm not referring to the board members here), equate the wet fly with a simple down and across swing. Yes that is one method of working them, but it is by no means the only method or even the traditional one. Personally, I like to think of the wet fly (and I usually mean soft-hackles or North Country wets by the term) as a tool and not a technique.

It works dead drifted in or just under the surface film imitating emergers, cripples and event spinners. Fished with a falling and rising presentation it's the perfect egg laying caddis or deep emerging may fly. It can be dapped and danced in the white water at the head of a plunge pool or skated across a riffle. Throw on a bead and it can often outfish a traditional nymph on any small stream. Upstream long or short "euro style" a team of wets can slay.

They don't work everywhere or in all water conditions, but when the time and place are right, wet flies are the bomb. They're a tool that takes minutes to learn how to use and a lifetime to master. Man I love these flies.

Aaron

My "signature fly" (Ginger Cream):