Wet Fly Fishing Tips

[afishinado]

Good video with tips on wet fly fishing.

I learned to fish off the reel without pinching down on the line a long time ago when wet fishing and my hook and catch ratio went way up using this method.

Check out the video.

 

[afishinado]

A good article about fishing wet flies >


https://thecreekcreature.com/the-simple-truth-to-fishing-wet-flies/?fbclid=IwAR0dDX22oTkZ4OhT9iNkxnqfV2HZwG39OTb0hplW9gOGI-mDB4W5-ckLNEc

 

[coyoterahn]

Thanks Afish.
I have been enjoying wet fly fishing this past week. Interestingly, most of my fish have come on casts upstream that allowed my flies to sink more so than the traditional across and down approach. Maybe I was just lucky!

 

[STONEMAN]

Occasional splashes in the riffles yesterday. A couple Hendricksons, a couple grannoms, and some tan caddis coming off. Switched up me leader to a three fly wet rig. Stopped counting at 15. Pretty awesome. Wets and flimphs rule!.

 

[redietz]

coyoterahn wrote:

I have been enjoying wet fly fishing this past week. Interestingly, most of my fish have come on casts upstream that allowed my flies to sink more so than the traditional across and down approach. Maybe I was just lucky!

No, up and across is just as traditional as fishing on the swing, and it's often more effective. If you read Bergman's Trout, for example, he said that the standard method of fishing wet flies is a quarter upstream to a quarter downstream. That's from 1939 when fishing wets was far more common than today.

The North Country spiders like the Partridge and Orange or Stewart's Black Spider were designed to be presented upstream, and dead drifted.

The only real selling point of fishing down and across is that it's less work.

 

[Baron]

I enjoyed these article and comments...they are helpful.

 

[afishinado]

redietz wrote:

coyoterahn wrote:

I have been enjoying wet fly fishing this past week. Interestingly, most of my fish have come on casts upstream that allowed my flies to sink more so than the traditional across and down approach. Maybe I was just lucky!

No, up and across is just as traditional as fishing on the swing, and it's often more effective. If you read Bergman's Trout, for example, he said that the standard method of fishing wet flies is a quarter upstream to a quarter downstream. That's from 1939 when fishing wets was far more common than today.

The North Country spiders like the Partridge and Orange or Stewart's Black Spider were designed to be presented upstream, and dead drifted.

The only real selling point of fishing down and across is that it's less work.

Typically I fish wet flies quartering up and dead drift them gaining depth and then allow them to swing downstream. Often, when there are active insects like caddis pupa or emerging mayflies the trout will hit your flies on the swing rather than the drift. So try both methods to determine what works and let the fish decide the best method for the time and place.

 

[redietz]

afishinado wrote:

Typically I fish wet flies quartering up and dead drift them gaining depth and then allow them to swing downstream. Often, when there are active insects like caddis pupa or emerging mayflies the trout will hit your flies on the swing rather than the drift. So try both methods to determine what works and let the fish decide the best method for the time and place.

I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Of course, frequently, fishing on the swing is the right way.

It's been my long time gripe, though, that most of the videos I see posted about wet flies is they only present a down stream presentation, and claim it's the traditional way, when it's really no more traditional than upstream. I firmly believe that's because requires far less effort than fishing upstream.

I know I'm lazy and prefer to to wade downstream, so I'll often start fishing in that direction, unless I have reason to think upstream will be more productive, e.g when a spinner fall is in progress.