Young

A couple of years ago, I was fishing with a group of fly fishermen that included two or three younger guys in their mid to late twenties, as I recall. All of them had a bit of fly-fishing experience, and as we were rigging up our gear that morning, they asked my advice on what fly patterns would be useful. In response, I rattled off a short list of fly patterns that I had found most effective in recent days and specifically mentioned that some wet flies should be good.

One of the young anglers immediately asked, “What is a wet fly?”

At first, I was a little surprised by the question, but it quickly dawned on me that most fly anglers under the age of 50 probably have had little exposure to or experience with wet-fly fishing. That seems somewhat improbable give that many aspects of fly-fishing are so deeply rooted in tradition and wet flies are among the oldest of fly-fishing methods. And many of us over the age of 50, me included, began our fly-fishing careers with wet flies and caught plenty of fish with them. So, if wet-fly fishing holds such a long and productive heritage in fly-fishing, why has it fallen into such obscurity with contemporary fly anglers?

First, let’s look at some of the basic differences among various fly-fishing methods. Dry flies are designed to float and to be fished on the water’s surface. Most dry flies are intended to imitate recently hatched aquatic insects before they take flight and seek the shelter of streamside vegetation. Dry flies are generally fished upstream and allowed to drift back toward the angler without any unnatural drag.

Conversely, wet flies are designed to sink and to be fished beneath the water’s surface. Some classic wet-fly patterns are tied with materials and colors to imitate natural insects, while many others are merely attractors that resemble nothing in nature. There are also some specialized categories of wet flies. Streamers and bucktails are patterns usually tied on long-shank hooks to imitate minnows or baitfish, although some of them are also attractor patterns with lots of flash or bright colors. Streamers are generally those tied with feather wings, while bucktails are generally ones fashioned from deer hair or other natural or synthetic hair. The so-called soft-hackle flies are a style of wet fly that many contemporary anglers are at least familiar with. They are also among the oldest-known types of artificial flies, some dating back 400 years or more.

Nymphs are wet flies designed to imitate the nymphal or larva form of some type of aquatic insect. Some popular and effective nymphs, however, are also basically attractors with no direct resemblance to a natural species. Nymph patterns are often weighted and fished upstream to get down on the stream bottom quicker to where the natural bugs and the fish live. Nymph fishing is also one of the most important reasons for the fading interest in wet-fly fishing.

The classic method for fishing wet flies was a downstream style of presentation. My favorite when I started was to make a cast across or slightly downstream and let the flies drift naturally with the current as far as possible and then retrieve them slowly with occasional jiggles or jerks of the rod tip. Most good wet-fly fishermen employed a cast with multiple flies. Three flies were the maximum allowed by law in Pennsylvania back then, but there is no longer any limit on the number you can use. My preference was always a two-fly rig to give the fish a choice of flies with a minimal amount of tangles.

In the early 1970s, the techniques of fishing nymphs upstream to achieve the most natural drift possible began to captivate fly anglers desiring to improve their skills. Ground-breaking books on angling entomology such as “Selective Trout” by Doug Swisher and Carl Richards, “Nymphs” by Earnest Schwiebert and “Hatches” by Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi inspired a new generation of fly tiers to create better nymph patterns to mimic the real bugs. I eagerly embraced that new wave in both my fishing and my fly tying and found much success doing so. It wasn’t long before I abandoned the wet-fly methods for the more productive nymph-fishing techniques like so many other fly fishermen of the time.

Fifty years later, however, I have long outgrown the “how many, how big, how often” motivation for fishing that drove my introduction and maturation as a nymph fisherman. I have also been tying a grand selection of some favorite, classic wet fly patterns in recent weeks in preparation for some days on the water this fishing wet flies. I’m looking forward to catching trout once more on a Leadwing Coachman, Gray Hackle Peacock, Orange Fish Hawk, Black Gnat and a few others.

My interest in wet flies was rekindled last winter when I re-read two books that were invaluable guides to me as a novice fly fisherman. The first was “Trout” by Ray Bergman, first published in 1938 with a second edition in 1952 (my favorite) and a third edition in 1976. The other is “The Practical Fly Fisherman” first published in 1953 with a revised edition in 1975. Both are long out of print, but decent used copies are readily available on eBay or other online used book vendors. If you want a course in wet flies and fishing techniques, either of these would make a fine textbook.