I think I'm falling in Love......

[Brandon Matthews]

Man, I'm really starting to dig fishing wet flies! I've fished them the last several times I was out and I've been having crazy success with them.

Yesterday morning I was able to get out for a few short hours and visited a nice section of water on Honey Creek. To make it short....I nymphed up through and picked up 6 or 7 decent browns. But I have picked up more fish on previous trips...so I got out of the water and walked to the place I started and switched everything over to wets. Long leader, three spiders (fishing North County Style) and fished my way up through....ended up catch 15 fish on the wets.

Now I'm fishing North Country Style (upstream) and I'm fishing the spiders however, I put a tungsten bead at the thorax....so I guess it's modified a little bit....Fishing three flies approximately 24" apart. Brown and partridge Spider, Black Spider and then a Orange and partridge spider all size 16. Most fish took the black spider.

But this winter I'm definitely going to up my wet fly selection and next spring I'm really going to visit the art of wet fly fishing. Is there any of you guys out there that fish wets that can give me the low down on some good patterns to fill my box with....Right now I'm pretty basic.

Thanks in advance!

[Mark Hanes]

I am a wet fly junkie at heart.  I will report back on this one when I have time for a good response.  This is a great starter book with all good patterns to get anyone started with wets. 

http://www.promiseangels.com/allen-mcgee/tying-fishing-soft-hackled-nymphs/SKU/484622?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=datafeed&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping

Lots of great books out there on the subject I will bring a few of mine for you to borrow next time we fish.

[Alain Barthelemy]

Brandon,
What rod are you using for the North Country style?  I have a Marryat Tactical 10-3, that I bought for that purpose, but rarely use it.  I bought the rod based on advice from vendors in the UK, who are crazy about this Marryat series.
Alain

[Brandon Matthews]

Alain I have a 9' 4 weight Winston GVX that I'm using for wets....it's a caster's rod! I use it for dries. I just bought an extra arbor and fitted it with 3 weight Cortland 444 line and use a modified long leader. I think my leader is 15 feet+ that way when the situation calls for wets I just change arbors and were off to the races.

[Dejon Hamann]

Wet flies can be a deadly effective technique in competition too! The venerable Michael Drinnan was telling us how swinging a team of 3 wets on a long leader and intermediate line is a great way to probe a river beat without disturbing or moving the other fish.

I had incredible success swinging my nymph rig on the Blue River at the cup this year.

[Aaron Laing]

Shhhhh! 

[John Killinger]

I think wet fly style is the most underutilized tactic in the fly fishing arsenal.  I've used soft hackles in southern tailwaters with great success, never tried them back home though, probably should. They seem to work real good just prior to a hatch. I've used the downstream swing, one thing about that it's hard to get the fish hooked because you have to set upstream.  I'd like to learn more about this.

[Loren Williams]

John, I am no wet fly expert-just going on record.  However, I have been doing a tremendous amount of work with fly animations and what I seem to feel (others feel free to correct me if I am wrong) is that I hook far more fish if I "wait for the weight" before I set, and then I set cross-stream off my downstream side.

[Mark Hanes]

What I do with down stream fish is similar to what you are doing Loren.  I try to keep some slack line coming off the reel .  When I set the hook I allow that line to help dampen the hook set.  I am not sure it makes a huge difference but when I am really getting a lot of down and across wet action I feel it makes a difference.  Cross stream  setting and keeping your rod low to the water also helps keep the fish in the water instead of pulling their head up and out of the water.  That leads to many bounced fish when fishing down stream.  I am no expert but i do get a good bit of time in fishing wets during the early season caddis hatches in my area. 

I really have picked up a lot of fish at the Mini Comps this year at spring creek on the down stream lift and even the dangle.  I am a big believer that every fish might be looking for something a bit different and you have to give them options.  More often than not that will lead to a couple extra fish caught. 

Brandon,

How long where your drifts when you fished upstream like you described?

[Brandon Matthews]

What I do when fishing downstream or down and across...I've been using the slip set method I learned it from watching Borger's video on Nymph fishing. Now it's not 100% for hook ups but I would be willing to bet it catches me 2 out of 3 or 67% of the fish take the wets on the swing....the key is having some slack in your rod hand to let go of once you start the set.

Mark, I was making casts that were anywhere between 15 and 25 feet. 25 feet is about the max for my 9' rod....I can cast longer but then I have to drop the line slightly and watch the tip of the fly line for sudden movements or pauses.

[John Killinger]

Got any you tube links to show it better?

[Brandon Matthews]

John, youtube doesn't have Borger's video but hook.tv does, however, I tried to go to the website and I'm getting some kind of errors....but Borger's video is called "The Nature of Fly Fishing". He shows the slip strike or slip set while he's fishing scuds down and across.

But basically the slip set or slip strike is: a technique applied when there is little or no slack on the water between rod tip and fly. This method requires the angler to allow line to slip through the guides on the set. With a normal strike, a lack of slack may result in too much sudden pressure on the fly in the fishes mouth, resulting in "popping" the fly out of the fishes grasp and that’s that (and who hasn’t been there before?). Lots of pressure may be desirable when hitting big fish with heavy leaders, but it can be trouble when lighter tippets (and potentially still-sizable fish) are involved. So when swinging a team of wet flies down and across or directly down stream, be sure to have an extra 1-2 feet of slack fly line in your hand and when you feel the weight of the take allow that slack line to freely pass through your hand and through the guides as you raise your rod. This will effectively allow you to strike the fish with only the springy, weak tip of the fly rod and not the fully loaded pressure of the normal hook set.

If the hook.tv site comes back up online....I will surely post the link to his video....Gary Borger is quite informative and has really taught me a lot.

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

Oliver Edwards has a great dvd about fishing spiders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hQAD1A2FI

[Dejon Hamann]

My observations exactly.... and often a very hard thing to retrain your arm/instinct to do.

John, I am no wet fly expert-just going on record.  However, I have been doing a tremendous amount of work with fly animations and what I seem to feel (others feel free to correct me if I am wrong) is that I hook far more fish if I "wait for the weight" before I set, and then I set cross-stream off my downstream side.

[Jim Frazier]

Brandon ,

try tying your wets and soft hackles on over sized caddis hooks , another words tie a size 12 caddis soft hackle on a size 8 caddis hook and short shank it. The fish will not notice the big hook in the faster water where these are usually fished. The most amazing thing you will find about tying your wets and softs on these hook is the fact that 90 % of the fish hook themselves (no need for a slack set , count method etc... Forget all that - make it simple . Try it and let me know if it helps but keep in mind i am not a competition fisherman

[Mark Hanes]

Jim that idea may work but really fish hook themselves on the swing just about every time they hit.  It is just the nature of the down stream take.  I am not sure why caddis style hooks will make any difference.  It may be a great solution I am just having a hard time seeing why.

[Chris Puchniak]

John, I am no wet fly expert-just going on record.  However, I have been doing a tremendous amount of work with fly animations and what I seem to feel (others feel free to correct me if I am wrong) is that I hook far more fish if I "wait for the weight" before I set, and then I set cross-stream off my downstream side.

I think I've found it the same way, and I've suspected it's because most anglers have the tendency to pull the fly out of the fish's mouth on a downstream approach - as opposed to cross or upstream fishing where your typical hookset will be more or less pulling the hook into a fish's mouth, rather than out of it (assuming the fish is striking from a downstream position).

[Aaron Laing]

I am not sure why caddis style hooks will make any difference.  It may be a great solution I am just having a hard time seeing why.

I could see at least two advantages with the wide gape and short shank caddis hooks. The wide gape gives you bite while the short shank gives the fish less leverage. It's the same principle as tying a #16 daiwl bach on #10 wet hook for lakes. While I haven't done a side by side comparison for hook up rates on the swing (I rarely fish my wets this way), many of my soft hackles are dressed in this "low water" style.

Aaron

[Jim Frazier]

Alright mark , no soup for you !  Aaron is right about the hook gape and leverage but the real benefit of using caddis style hooks in my eyes is that you can tie say a sz 12 bug (length & profile ) on a sz 8-10 caddis hook and get a huge gape and the curved hook keeps em buttoned when they inevitably jump out of the water on the take or the set. It is just a suggestion to try and your millage may very but for me i really am a big fan of caddis hooks for 3/4 of my tying.