Tired of the same old dead drift? Got eyestrain from watching a tuft of yarn bouncing through the waves? Too much lead weight got you down?
Then we’ve got just the deal for you. It’s called fishing wet flies, or at least it used to be, and it could be the cure for what ails you in a number of frustrating situations.
At the very least, this redux of what may be the earliest form of fly-fishing provides an intriguing change of pace from whatever you’ve been hooked on lately.
There’s something about the tug of a trout at the end of a swing that’s more appealing than the twitch of an indicator. When that tug becomes an all-out slam, then we’ve really got something.
No one can be sure when wet flies evolved or even when they drifted out of vogue. Suffice to say that the modern fixation on matching the hatch and super- realistic patterns caused the fly-fishing fraternity to shoot the horse it rode in on.
Nearly everyone has chanced into a bit of wet-fly fishing without even realizing it – not until they found a nice trout jiggling the line as it swung toward the surface at the end of a drift. Truth is, many situations involving tough currents and/or insect hatches fairly cry out for a return to the old ways.
An e-mail that wandered in through the ether a couple of months ago from an angler who told of a productive outing using a couple of snelled wet flies in choppy water on the Roaring Fork River near Carbondale got me reminiscing about my own nearly forgotten experiences.
It began when I joined a veteran angler who fished a double rig of soft-hackle wets on the Fryingpan in the late 1960s and morphed into a more stylized approach detailed in the 1984 book, “Swimming Flies,” by Aspen resident George Odier.
Different approach, same theory – which is to utilize one or more sunken flies swung through challenging currents to attract trout keying on emerging insects, usually caddisflies.
This involves two distinct fly types. One accents a slender thread body and a couple wraps of soft hackle, usually partridge. In the modern version, you can substitute a more precise imitation of the pupa, such as John Barr’s Graphic Caddis or the new Swing Nymph from Umpqua Feather Merchants.
The other, older method involves a stiff-winged fly typified in the Coachman series. Odier recommended the Western Coachman for his method; others tout the Leadwing Coachman for a coloration closer to caddis. Add a bead head and trim a little of the wing off the Western Coachman and you have a fair replica of the Prince Nymph – just in case you were wondering why this modern pattern works the way it does.
The classic wet-fly technique features a quartering downstream cast, much as for steelhead or salmon. For maximum effectiveness, use a split shot to take the fly toward the bottom, essential in imitating the rapid ascent of the emerging insect.
Use a relatively short amount of fly line for control, mending to eliminate a belly that unnaturally accelerates the fly. As the fly begins to straighten downstream, lift the rod slowly in a series of twitches. Most strikes occur at this point.
Wet-fly practitioners often favor two flies, sometimes three. Tie on a fly of each type, at least until the trout tell you what’s working. Experimentation with size and color further assists in refining the process.
The mechanics of the system vary, but certain rules are involute: Tie the most heavily weighted fly to the end of the rig; attach the droppers about a foot apart; make the dropper lines no more than 4 inches long to avoid tangling.
A stiff dropper tippet, say 2X, helps make the fly stand out straight from the main stem of the leader. Generally, trout react quickly and aggressively to this method, not easily spooked by thicker diameters.
Wet flies work best during a caddis hatch and serve as an easy antidote to problems posed by choppy pocket water and tough currents. In fact, difficult flows that confound your best efforts at achieving a dead drift now become your friend.
In any case, it’s a system that will add variety and a change of pace to your fly-fishing arsenal. Sometimes the old ways truly are the best.
Listen to Charlie Meyers at 9 a.m. each Saturday on “The Fan Outdoors,” radio KKFN 950 AM. He can be reached at 303-820-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
