help with wet fly choices, skunked by stocked trout...yes technique likely poor

[DyberryBrookies]

Ok so are you suggesting that there is some mysterious unrevealed secret to tying three flies in a row, getting down to the depth where you are catching fish, and finding the pattern or arrangement that the fish are willing to eat? Not to be a pain in the @$$, but Im just not seeing it. As far as the names of the flies go and the patterns, yeah they are cool looking and sound really artistic, and if you're into that...awesome! Ive had some interest in wet fly fishing myself, never persued it much to be honest, and will be putting it to the test. Perhaps I will find out first hand how difficult it is and have to eat a large serving of humble pie!

[bocast]

I'm sure you will do great, because a natural skeptic and good observer is the perfect person to learn a technique like this. I'm not able to articulate it well, but the key is in the animation and presentation of the cast. I read that wet fly fisherman of the past fished up to six wet flies in a cast. If I tried that I would be found on the river tied in my own mess of flies!

Don't rely on my account of it, as I am a beginner myself. I strongly recommend the Wotton DVD, Wet Fly Ways. I would send you mine but I gave it to my brother. This shows some of the key methods of wet fly fishing in action, with a professional guide as "student" asking Davy Wotton questions that you or I would ask. It is a great, I mean really great, lesson on Wet Fly Fishing. The fish caught in the DVD nicely illustrate the effect of the method. None of my ramblings does this approach justice. Armed with the DVD, you might take to it like a duck to water. See it and try.

[DyberryBrookies]

Absolutely will give it a shot bocast! And good luck in your pursuit as a wet fly expert.

[Strathspey]

I had the same problem recently at Bennett Springs. Those fish were tough. I must have thrown everything in my box at them. Ugh. Haven't figured it out yet.

[Davyfly]

Dyberry wrote

Ok so are you suggesting that there is some mysterious unrevealed secret to tying three flies in a row, getting down to the depth where you are catching fish, and finding the pattern or arrangement that the fish are willing to eat.

Not a mysterious unrevealed secret, wet fly fishing is just about the oldest known form of fly fishing, or shall we say the presentation of a man made creation to deceive a trout, which is the case for any fly we used, nothing more but a act of deception !!!

There is no other means of fly fishing, compared to others used, be it nymph, dry, streamer that involves the intrinsic value of fishing wet fly techniques and the knowledge and skill required for both moving and stillwater techniques.

There is no technique that is on any day a guarantee that fish will respond, granted there may be one that is the most productive, unlike most others wet flies can be fished in numerous permutations from the surface to great depth, be the trout feeding on dry, emerger, nymph or terrestrials, given the correct choice of fly and method of fishing all can be covered.
Can a wet fly be fished as a dry, yes it can, now you guys will begin to wonder how !!!

Check out the recent issue of Fly Rod and Line, Dave Hughes just wrote a article based on his time spent with me on the water.

Davy.

[bocast]

Davy, is the magazine Fly Rod and Reel? Is it the Spring issue? I will have to buy a copy.

[Davyfly]

Yes, Spring issue.

Dyberry.
Should you spurn you interest to learn the skills of fishing a wet fly then you will be entering a new world in the pursuit of trout and for that matter many other species.
But you will have to come to terms with many techniques related.
If you can fish a dry fly dead drift then so too should you be able to fish a team of 2/3/4 wet flies, which may be winged, soft hackles, spiders.
If you can fish dead drift a nymph then so too you will be able to fish a team of wets.
If you can fish emergers for caddis/mayfly/midge so too you will be able to fish a team of wets, or at times a single fly.
If you can fish a streamer, then so too you will be able to fish a team of wets, all be it you do not strip them like a streamer.

In essence all you are doing is using a designated wet fly patters in favor of a dry/nymph/emerger or streamer. However there is a great deal more to it than that, particularly related to casting and presentation skills, not to mention knowledge of trout behaviour and more to the point how to read water signs.

To day was interesting.
As of now we have good caddis hatches, the banks are loaded with adult caddis. Expectations were for good surface activity, not so. We were faced with a wicked downstream wind that gusted to 30 mph at times and it was cold.
I knew there would be zero interest from fish feeding or looking for caddis on the surface, they would never see them in the first place.
The only practical way to deal with this was to use a intermediate line, to get the flies down below the surface, and control the drift as slow as possible.
And that was the ticket for the day.
I used the same flies l would have used if l had of been fishing a dry line on the surface.

DW

[bocast]

I had more success today on the little creek that started this thread. I fished further down the creek in an area which is more smallmouth territory than trout. I caught a bunch of smallmouth and some trout fishing a cast of two wet flies over skinny water. I used a DT line, a very inexpensive bamboo rod (South Bend 59-9, my first outing with that rod), a furled leader and some winged wets. They were taking a Mallard and Claret, a Peter Ross, a Silver Invicta, and a winged wet of my own which uses Guinea fowl for wings, green tinsel body ribbed with gray and blue, a CDC underhackle at the collar and a final collar hackle of furnace. There were some caddis coming off, so for good measure I threw a Partridge and Green, which the bronzebacks liked a lot too. The Mallard and Claret was the huge favorite today. I saw a rotund carp, too, but he wasn't interested in winged wet flies.. modernist, no doubt.

[northcountryman]

Now, by intermediate line. you are referring to a sink-tip right? Odd, that use of a sink-tip vs. floating would make that much of a diff. when fishing wets. I'm not saying you're wrong because empirical evidence suggests otherwise, all I'm saying is that in my experience fishing wets, they sink fairly well on floating line. Not real deep, maybe they're in the top 6in of water or so wheras true nymphs will drop down much better, but still, they're not in the surface film either . If they needed to be near the bottom, then nymph patterns probably had a shot at working just like the wets and Davy's advice to switch lines makes total sense. I would be curious to know if you would have been equally successful using nymphs also on sink-tip line and/or addition of small shot on floating.

[northcountryman]

Davy, were you using actual dry flies and fishing them wet or were they traditional wets that in certain cases, you fish dry?