The wonderful world of wet flies Techniques are fairly simple to understand, execute

When my Dad was growing up in Mars Hill in the late 1920s, he and his buddies would haunt the local trout streams during the summer. A Prince Albert tobacco can full of worms in one pocket, and in the other some hooks, sinkers, and a roll of string made up his tackle. A brookside alder branch was cut each outing to use as a pole. Primitive maybe, but all Aroostook creeks were full of fish, and oh did they have fun.

Dad converted to fly fishing in his mid-teens, and other than the occasional use of live minnows, never relinquished his fly rods. It became evident early on that I wasn’t to be a bait fisherman. A spinning rod with lures was my first weapon, and when I entered my teens I began fly casting. At my father’s side I learned to use one of his older fiberglass rods, and the plastic box of used flies he gave me to beat the water with were a treasure to me. Too young to effectively use dry flies, my patterns were wet flies and a couple of streamers. I’ll never forget the elegant shape and bright colors of those wet flies, and to this day a well-tied wet fly brings a smile to my face and a warm memory to my heart.

Wet fly past

The first flies created were bits of yarn and feather attached to bent wire, and these were fished below the water surface, thus the name wet fly. In a broad sense, any fly which doesn’t float is a wet fly, including tandem streamers, nymphs, and single streamers. A true wet fly, however, is a short, sleek pattern with single feather or married wings and a collar style hackle that was created more than 400 years ago. Initial wet flies such as the March brown were tied to imitate winged insects and were generally comprised of rather drab colors with swept-back wings and rough, scraggly insect-like bodies. During the late 1800s, very bright, colorful wet flies became the trend, and although they held little resemblance to any living insect or aquatic, they were, and continue to be, very effective.

Some somber wet-fly patterns of age-old descent include the coachman, created in the 1830s by Tom Bosworth, the coachman for George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria. We now have royal, leadwing, and fan wing coachman wet flies. The hare’s ear predates 1839 and was made of fur from between a rabbit’s ears. Although not flashy or lavish, this pattern resembles many natural trout foods. Other aged, somber wet flies include a blue dun, brown hackle, cowdung, dark Cahill, alder, and Montreal.

Long before artificial flies were in vogue, an old trick was to cut off the colorful fin of a brook trout, put it on a hook and cast it. When wet flies began to be tied, a red, black, and white likeness of a trout fin was created, and remains a productive pattern throughout the Northeast to this day. In the 1860s, one of the first married wing wet flies with vivid colors was created, and the silver doctor remains a dependable trout fly in this generation. Parmachenee Lake in the Rangeley area lends its name to the red and white parmachenee belle created in 1878. This fly also replicates the fin of a brook trout, and the grizzly King, red gray hackle, and professor are other proven colorful wet fly patterns.

Wet fly present

Walk up to an angler along any local stream and ask to look at his fly boxes, and the chance of seeing wet flies will be slim. There may be nymphs, and certainly some streamer patterns, and several dozen dry flies of untold shapes and sizes. Ask a handful of sportsmen about wet fly casting and fishing techniques and some may have a general knowledge, but few will have any in-depth first-hand experience. Question a fly tier about constructing wet-fly patterns and most will have only perfunctory input. Traditional wet flies and their specific angling tactics and techniques have fallen by the wayside. Most modern casters go from nymphs to streamers to dry flies as the season progresses, with little or no interest in the heritage of wet fly casting.

Wet fly fishing is effective all season long when the right patterns are utilized, and especially so in June and September. On small regional brooks and creeks that remain cold all summer, colorful wet flies will take trout on even the warmest, cloudless days. Aside from trolling a fly, wet fly fishing is the simplest style of fly fishing, and an especially easy method for youngsters and novice fly casters to learn.

Casting and retrieving

Wet fly casting may be accomplished from shore by walking within casting distance of a stretch of water likely to hold feeding fish, or more traditionally by wading a stream. Wading anglers will want to stand above and to either side of a likely run of current. The standard approach is to begin with a short length of line and make a cast at 45 degrees cross current. The fly will drift freely, sinking somewhat during the swing, and then rising back near the surface as the line straightens downstream near the end of the swing.

The overall sinking and rising action of the fly as it moves cross current will often entice feeding trout to take. At the end of each swing, with no help from the angler, the leader and fly will be caught by the current and perform a “buttonhook” or “curl” maneuver. This turning action, in conjunction with the change of drift speed and rising motion at the end of the swing, is what makes wet fly fishing so unique, and effective. These motions are nearly perfect imitations of how a nymph acts as it rises to the surface to become a winged insect, and trout go crazy for it.

After each cast, the angler will pull out another foot of line and cast again, until he has out an optimum length of line, which is determined by the pool width and casting ability. Once at optimum length, the fisherman takes a step downstream after each cast and line swing to cover the full length of the pool. If you’ve never fished wet flies, you’re probably shaking your head at the simplicity of the style. Well, it really is that easy, and the dead downstream drift with its own natural motion in the water is deadly.

As the wet fly caster becomes more accomplished, a couple of additional tactics can be added to increase the fly action to entice the more reluctant fish. Rod tip twitches and jiggles should be tried next. Keeping the rod almost parallel with the water, use just the wrist to bounce the tip two or three inches up and down or left and right as the fly drifts downstream. Since many insects dart about rapidly just before hatching, this motion imparts a look of realism. Don’t make the motion too rapid or violent, and continue the twitch for several seconds after the fly finishes its drift and hangs directly downstream. The fly is near the surface then and dancing it about will often coax a reluctant fish to strike.

Retrieving the line for another cast can also be done in a manner to give the fly action and draw more hits. Using the noncasting hand to strip in line 6-12 inches at a time will impart a swimming motion to the fly. Use the index finger of the casting hand as a guide, and trap the line against the rod handle after each inward strip. This allows the angler to regrip the line for another strip with the off hand, as well as hold the line firmly in place in case a fish takes. Don’t forget to keep twitching the rod tip during retrieves.

In slow-water pools the line can even be stripped during the line swing to add speed to the fly. Another tactic is to use a dropper fly in addition to the one at the end of the leader. Novice wet fly casters will find one fly enough to worry about, but with practice a duo of patterns can be handled in the air and in the water. The snelled or dropper leader should be at least 20 inches from the tip fly, and as far as three feet up the leader.

A few expert casters even tie on three wet flies, using two dropper lines. I’ve found two to be plenty for casting and retrieving comfort, and for fish production. Using more than one fly allows the simultaneous presentation of varied color patterns, and more than one size and shape at the same time. This technique quickly determines what color and style of fly is most effective on a particular day. Occasionally this dual rig will even reward the angler with two strikes at once, and that is a handful of fun and excitement.

Wet fly patterns

The bulk of wet fly patterns imitate emerging insects, but some are tied to resemble minnows, and quite a few are brilliantly colored attractor patterns that look like no living creature. Few anglers can carry all those flies in their many sizes, so the dilemma is selecting what to have on hand. Neophyte wet fly fishermen should consider the following guidelines.

For drab-colored emergers it’s difficult to beat a gold-ribbed hare’s ear. The more it’s used, the worse it looks, and the worse it’s chewed up, the better it works. A hare’s ear is arguably the best all- around wet fly for Maine waters. A black Gnat, alder, leadwing coachman, Montreal, and March brown are also proven favorites. At the top of my personal list of favorites are also the dark and light Cahill.

Age-old standbys of the attractor variety include the parmachenee belle, silver doctor, royal coachman, professor, and grizzly King. Two lesser-known patterns that just slay Aroostook trout in small brooks are the trout fin and the gray hackle red. Most light- to middleweight rods will do for casting wet flies, but an all-around outfit for small creeks to large rivers would be a 6-weight rod of 71/2-81/2 feet in length and a small well-balanced reel. Use a floating weight-forward or double-taper line and a 9-foot tapered leader with a tippet strength of 4-6 pounds.

It’s currently a bit early for dependable dry fly fishing, so it would be a good time to try wet fly fishing. Although small streamers will work, wet flies will generally produce more action under current water conditions. Newcomers to the art of fly casting will find wet fly techniques to be fairly simple to understand and execute, and you’re fairly certain to catch fish since they usually hook themselves when striking a swinging wet fly. Wet flies have been around for hundreds of years, and are often overlooked in favor of more modern techniques and patterns, but in truth these swept-wing flies work just as well today as they did centuries ago.

Outdoor feature writer Bill Graves can be reached at graves@polarisumpi.maine.edu