Favorite Wet Flies

[supervdl]

What is everyone's favorite wet fly pattern? And how often, when and how do you fish it?

 

[Tigereye]

March Brown: ~May and June. Fished on swing and hand roll back in shallows or tail-outs with occasional twitch .

Grouse and Green: May and June. On swing during caddis or BWO hatches. Down and across swing and hand roll back

Light Cahill: May and June. fish once grey fox and light cahill start showing; riffles and pocket water,

Grey Soft Hackle : April and May: Quill Gordon and Hendrickson hatches, riffles and runs. Let hang in water below you awhile before recasting

Most fished and favorite is MB. MB hatches tend to be sporadic all day. There are days when this is the only fly I will use.

Second is Grey SH. Early season favorite conditions permitting. Double or triple up flies on leader.

 

[redietz]

I fish wets almost exclusively. Which ones depend on the time of year. Some, like a Partridge and Orange, Hare's Ear Flymph or Stewart's Black spider, I fish all year when I can't think of anything else to put on.

Most are seasonal:

January, December -- Pheasant tail soft hackle (size 18)
February -- Light Spanish Needle
March -- Grouse and Herl; Dark Hendrickson wet; PT Soft Hackle
April -- Dark Hendrickson, Water Hen Bloa, March Brown
May, June -- Tup's spider, Lil Dorothy, PT sulfur emerger wet
July, August -- Wet ants, white fly wet during that hatch
September -- Almost anything
October, November -- October Caddis flymph

Fish upstream, across stream, on the swing depending on what's working on a given day.

EDIT: Also, think in terms of teams, not individual flies. What patterns work well together? Here in Maryland, we're only allowed two flies, and I see no reason to up that when I fish in PA, but consider that one fly often acts as an attractor, while the other actually takes the fish. That "taking fly" should be on point.

 

[Bamboozle]

I don’t fish many and the ones I use are all soft hackles with the majority being reworked versions utilizing colored wire bodies for a little flash & weight, the gauge determined by the size of the fly.

My go-to flies:

My absolute favorite is a Snipe & Purple tied in a size 16 utilizing very fine purple wire. I also tie a traditional version with Purple Pearsall’s.

The second most effective for me is a Partridge and Peacock followed by a March Brown Soft Hackle.

Next up would be Partridge & Orange tied with orange or amber wire, a Partridge & Olive tied with olive wire, a Partridge & Yellow tied with yellow wire or a Partridge & Olive with Yellow, having a wire body made of two strands of wire wrapped side by side for a segmented effect.

Special mention goes to my Partridge & Chartreuse made with chartreuse wire that has taken fish in many places including heavily fished, stocked streams, late in the season or during the winter when nothing else seemed to interest them and I was wondering how many fish were still puttering around.

 

[Prospector]

I love to swing 2 or 3 wets but I tend to mix nymphs and wets into the setup. I like middle fly to be an attractor pattern (Royal Coachman or Grizzly King). I like the other 2 wets or 1 wet to match a current hatch but if not sure what’s coming off I’ll go with a March Brown, pheasant tail soft hackle, Gold ribbed hares ear or Leadwing Coachman.

 

[Bruno]

It is my own I call it the Drunken Bourbon Magic Fly.

Its called that because I was drunk on Bourbon when i tied it and it works like magic

 

[STONEMAN]

Bruno, give us a pic. Which bourbon? Angel’s Envy?

 

[Bruno]

Now I am sure some one has tied this before.

However the inebriation is very important when tying this fly so the proportions are off and the fly looks like it has a hang over. That being said, between 5 and 7 tonight this one caught a dozen or so.

Hook - size 12 - 16 wet fly hook

Tail - something red on your desk

Body - Herl aka "Trout Crack"

Rib - copper wire

Hackle - Yellow Partridge

Thread - Orange

Booze - oh its has to be cheap - Evan helped tie this one.

The secret is not making it look good. Make it look like it is hung over yet attractive. Kinda like a hot college student on a Sunday morning in the bagel shop with cream cheese on their face and a latte to go.

 

[shakey]

partridge and Orange,Yellow,Green or Olive
california quail and red,yellow,brown
starling and purple,and starling and yellow
Tups indispensable
GRHE,PTSH, cahills,hendricksons,
peacock and any color hackle.
stewart's spiders,glassy spiders
diawl bach
leadwing coachman,royal coachman
wooly worm
olive with starling wing and dun hackle
pass lake,doc sprately
maurice fly
cow dung ,wet trude

i also tye some winged wets all in one color. olive,claret,white,orange etc.

 

[shakey]

i also use nymphs,such as zugbugs and PN's as wets.

streamers and dries as wets: hornberg,mickey finn, griffith's gnats,trudes,cracklebacks,etc

 

[redietz]

shakey wrote:

streamers and dries as wets: hornberg,mickey finn, griffith's gnats,trudes,cracklebacks,etc

Add Renegades and elk hair caddis to that list.

 

[larkmark]

March Brown wet fished dry or in the film during certain hatches but not necessarily March Browns but I bet you cannot guess what hatch it is.

 

[shakey]

redietz wrote:

shakey wrote:

streamers and dries as wets: hornberg,mickey finn, griffith's gnats,trudes,cracklebacks,etc

Add Renegades and elk hair caddis to that list.

oooh!!! good call !!! can't wait to try that.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

Bruno wrote:
Now I am sure some one has tied this before.

However the inebriation is very important when tying this fly so the proportions are off and the fly looks like it has a hang over. That being said, between 5 and 7 tonight this one caught a dozen or so.

Hook - size 12 - 16 wet fly hook

Tail - something red on your desk

Body - Herl aka "Trout Crack"

Rib - copper wire

Hackle - Yellow Partridge

Thread - Orange

Booze - oh its has to be cheap - Evan helped tie this one.

The secret is not making it look good. Make it look like it is hung over yet attractive. Kinda like a hot college student on a Sunday morning in the bagel shop with cream cheese on their face and a latte to go.

That is one buggy looking fly.

 

[Fredrick]

I didn't know wet flies were still a thing JK ;-)

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I don't fish them often, but when I do, the PT soft hackle is by far my biggest producer. I fish it a variety of ways-swung, upstream with a dead drift, many times as a dropper. Seems to work just about anywhere any time.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Don't fish them as much these days as usually I have caddis pupa dropper combo, or a bh soft hackle on. Traditional favorites that I still sometimes go to would be the Pickett Pin and the Professor.