Fly Fishing: Wet Flies and Nymphs
A question from Yahoo Answers:
"When fishing a dry fly on a stream it is of great importance that the fly is not allowed to drag, but what about when fishing wet flies and nymphs? I have come across conflicting sources of information on this; some say that drag should be avoided, whereas others say that they should be allowed to drag, or that it does not no harm at least. Could someone please clear this confusion up for me? Also is it best to fish them casting upstream or downstream?"
I was looking through yahoo answers for fly fishing tips and found this which has helped me so I thought I'd post it on this blog. Feel free to leave your own questions and comments. Here was the best answer:
The Cardinal Rule of Fly Fishing
In my opinion, the cardinal rule of flyfishing is that there are always exceptions to the rule. It's true that the vast majority of the time, your dry fly should be floating drag free. But if there is a caddis hatch, and the bugs are skittering across the water, doing the same with your dry fly can be very effective.
Whether you are fishing a dry or a nymph, ask your self two important questions:
1. what are the bugs doing?
2. How are the fish reacting to that?
In a nutshell, you want your fly to behave in the same manner as the insects. This is when you break the no-drag rule.
Most of the time, when fishing a nymph, you DO want a drag free drift, because this is what the bugs are doing. But during a hatch, the nymphs are swimming towards the surface, and you want your imitation to do the same.
There are two techniques for this, one called the wet fly swing, and the Leisenring lift. both are designed to make your fly move upwards in the water, and drag is what causes this.
With the wet fly swing, you cast across or slightly down, and let the nymph drift drag free, until the end of the drift, when you let the current pull your leader tight- this will make the sunken fly suddenly swing upwards in the water, imitating a fly swimming to the surface, and you can get a lot of strikes like this- but a few things to keep in mind- the fish strike will come with a tight leader, so yo have to be careful not to break them off. and two, the fish will now be below you, and you'll have to either move downstream to play them, or if not possible fight them back up against the current, so use a slightly heavier tippet when you use this technique. 3x or 4x if you can get away with it. This is very effective with a soft hackle or caddis pupae during a caddis hatcch, but you can do the same with mayflies as well. Use a weighted fly, and try to avoid split shot on the leader.
The lift is a VERY subtle move- cast up and across, floow the fly with your tip, you want to have enough of the slack out that you are "in contact" with the fly, but not so tight it drags.
when the fly approaches the trout, you VERY GENTLY stop your rod tip, causing the fly to rise, and if all goes well, the fly will move toward the surface right in front of the fish, and they will hit it.
It sounds simple, and in theory it is, but in practie this is a very hard skill to master, as you have to develop the right touch so the movement of the fly is not too fast, which will spook all but the smallest fish. If you are going to be doing this, try practicing in some moving water fisrts, until you get the feel for it. It works best in clear water where you can sight fish, and see your fly moving- in turbid off color water, you have almost no way of knowing if you are doing it right.
So watch the bugs, watch the fish, and try these at the front end and middle part of a hatch. You can do it without a hatch but its not as effective unless the natural insects are doing it too. Good luck, I hope this was helpful.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Both ways are correct ways of fishing nymphs, Ive seen anglers doing both, myself including. I generally cast up stream and then let them drag and flow, however this method doesn’t work for all anglers on all rivers, often it depends on the type of nymph, i weighted tungsten headed nymph is obviously better fished closer to the bottom and allowed to drift, however an un-weighted pheasant tail for example should be fished a little higher in the water and only drifted slowly, i hardly ever retrieve nymphs, unless there is a rising trout i will cast about 4-6 feet in-front of it, also it depends on the speed the river is flowing you are fishing, if you don’t feel confident in the fishing of nymphs in fast water stick to the slower almost still water pools.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
When dry fly fishing the drag happens when the fly is pulled across the current at the waters surface,as wet flies are fished subsurface it dosnt matter if they drag. If you are fishing a stream all flies should be fished upstream as the fish are facing that way so they can intercept insects that are brought down by the current. On a lake wet flies are cast out from a boat and then pulled back in short bursts to tempt the fish to take them.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
When fishing nymphs you want to cast them upstream from you and let them drift drag free down stream mending your line as it goes…when you reach the end of your drift…let the current “drag” it until it is directly downstream from you…let it flutter for a little then repeat the process…when fishing wet flies…try quartering downstream( casting about 45 degrees downstream from where you are facing) and letting the fly “swim” through the current until it is directly downstream from you…by letting it flutter in the current you’d be surprised by how many strikes you get at the end of your drift.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Let wets and nymphs drag the sudden speed increase when the line starts to turn often makes fish strike as they think there meal is trying to get away !