WET FLY WAYS.

[JohnHughes]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I will wait till I get the DVD and then try it with my current rod ( an old st croix imperial 9' 5/6) and see what I think. From what you said about rods Davy, I can see where length would be the final criteria, since someone who is 5' 2" fishing with a 10' rod would be about the same as a 6' 2" guy fishing a 9'. I'm 6 foot and I think my 9' st croix is a pretty moderate action rod, and the weight is ok. But, maybe the shorter person should be fishing an 11 foot rod and the taller a ten foot rod.

I am curious about the 10 foot rods since most of my fishing is wading and it is a fairly big river, and don't usually fish streamers, I think I will give a 10 foot 5 weight a try sometime.

Thanks again,
John

[Davyfly]

Sipper, are we talking about the Flavilinea, which is a smaller species of the genus.

Ok, there are a number of species that emerge as winged duns, unlike others that go through the transformation in the meniscus.
And as you noticed they do not remain on the surface for long.
I do find it strange that the trout act in the way you describe all be it not a unusual characteristic.
Is the water slow flowing and a flat glide surface or is it more a popply water surface.
Also the position of the trout, is the fish for example just off of the main feeding line in slow soft water and then turning out into the main stream where it sees the duns ?
Often the nature of the water surface movement is related to fish feeding behaviour, or how they see the fly.

Either way there is no reason why you should not be able to catch these fish with dry/emerger soft hackles, and nymphs, if the fly is right and you present it the way the fish wish to see it.
Often as not before a hatch fish are taking the nymphs at the stream bed, when the hatch takes place they will then turn attention to the surface.


John, l do not think that height is so much the issue here so far as rod length its simply what a longer rod will enable for you to do and for many reasons.

Davy.

[JohnHughes]

Fishing Report.

I was able to get out to the local stream this afternoon for about an hour, and put into practice some of the things Ive learned in the DVD. And it's was a lot of fun. I was fishing with downstream presentation due to high water and other conditions that prevented me from wading effectively. I had been on the stream a few days earlier and had noticed some BWOs, so I tied up some of Davy's Black and Silver spiders only using olive thread instead. When I got to the stream today there was no insect activity. First cast I caught a brown on the spider, and for some reason the other two flies in my cast(a march brown wet and a professor) were gone. So I re-rigged and put 3 spiders on the leader. Long story short I caught 4 fish in all including a double. Great fly Davy! I can't wait till the water goes down so I can try some of the other techniques.

p.s. There was another guy there flinging streamers, but he wasn't catching any.

[bocast]

Wet Fly Ways on a Western Tailwater:

On a recent trip to the North Platte River in Wyoming, I fished exclusively with techniques learned in the Wet Fly Ways DVD. As this water is usually fished with nymph, split shot and indicator or with streamers, some of my acquaintances there were skeptical of my approach. However, my closest friend is an expert guide who took one look at the soft hackles and said "These will catch fish, you'll see." I stepped into the water and proceeded to land twelve nice trout in the first hour! I am definitely not used to this kind of success! These were taken on soft hackles of traditional design, on a silver tinsel bodied soft hackle with fine red wire rib of my own, and on winged wets tied by Davy Wotton. (I am just learning to tie, and the winged wets like the Alexandra and silver invicta are still beyond me.) It was a blast. Several days of fishing there confirmed that this was not a fluke. I had success both wading and fishing from a drift boat. When I wade fished some heavily discolored water in Freemont Canyon, the Partridge and Orange was the only fly that worked. In the North Platte below EKW park a Patridge and Yellow tied on a 10 hook was very effective. I think its effectiveness may stem from its similarity to a cranefly larva, but that is just a guess.

My rig included an 11 foot rod, an intermediate sink Rio polyleader and about 20" to 30" between each fly in the cast of three flies. I found out that if the cast was spaced less than 20" apart I had no takes. I loved fishing without indicator or split shot, using both hands in controlling the action and swing of the flies, and fishing upstream and across as well as down and across. I am hooked on the wet fly ways, and plan to use these approaches on steelhead in the great lakes tribs with soft hackles tied on slightly larger hooks. Thanks Davy for opening the door to this classic approach to wet fly fishing!