Dark side

A wet fly is a fly designed to be fished below the water’s surface of the water or a dry fly that has been drowned and is being fish below the surface of the water.

Basically there are two main types of wet fly:

The type is representational flies which are flies tied to represent food that trout eat. Within this representational class flies may be representations of naturals that spend part of their life cycle in the water or they may be tied to represent terrestrial food sources.

I think trout respond to food and hopefully representational flies in four main ways.

The most obvious is when they are actively feeding but not fixated on just one food source. At those times fish can have an appetite for everything that is available from nymphs, yabbies, small fish, shrimp, worms, lizards, frogs, grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles and for that matter almost anything that will fit in their mouth. It’s not surprising that a fly tied to represent a natural that is dropped in their line of sight and looking like something alive often gets their attention. Fish often are binge feeders and are by no way picky when it comes to feeding time. They will aggressively strike at food even when food is already hanging out their mouth. Once satisfied however they do lay relatively dormant whilst digesting their meal. Trout generally only fall into this type of feeding behaviour when there is plenty of food of different types available. This is often the case when there are mixed hatches of insects , a range of different insects being blown on the water or when they are feeding on wind lanes that have mixed content.
The second reason is when they are actively feeding but are fixated on just one food source. Trout definitely become fixated on some food sources and when they are in that state will swim past other forms of food to eat more of what they are fixated on. At these times if you don’t have a fly that presents like the natural it’s very hard to get any interest from feeding fish at all. You often see this when trout are feeding on food source like spinners, mayflies, hoppers, emerging nymphs of one type (eg mudeyes) and yabbies. If trout are locked into one of those food sources they will swim pass all other offerings.
The third reason why fish strike a fly is that it’s a feeding opportunity that requires the exertion of very little energy. They may not be actively hunting for food but if it’s presented right in front of them they will sometimes eat it any way. They can be quite picky in this situation but if you can present a fly that is easily accessed and represents a favourite food sources they will often have a go at it even if some of the strikes are a bit half hearted.
The final reason why trout strike a fly is because they are protecting their territory and you particularly see if a brown trout is protecting its beat or during the trout’s spawning season when their hormones are all fired up. So if a fly that looks like a natural predator of some form and strays into their territory they will often strike at it to move it on or in the case of spawning fish they will have a go at an egg fly so as to ensure that their eggs or fry have the strongest chance of survival.

The second class of flies are those that tied as attractors. These are flies that have been tied just to get the trout’s attention. These flies are not always tied with the intention that they will be eaten by trout but rather that they will get the trout’s attention and lead the trout to other flies being fished in the same team either above or below the attractor fly. Attractors can of course resemble naturals and serve a dual purpose but often are nothing like any thing found on the trout’s diet.

Somewhere between true representational flies and attractors are those flies that are tied basically to represent naturals but have hot spots such as beads, flash or a bit of coloured sections incorporated into the fly so that they act as both a representation of a natural as well as an attractor. Hot spot flies are particularly useful in teams of flies where having something that stand out may help representation flies to stand out or may just have enough bling to trigger a a territorial or protective response.

Fishing a single fly

There are times when fishing a single fly is definitely the way to go. These include:

For matching the hatch or polaroiding my first choice would always be a fly that represents in form, function and colours what you think the trout are feeding on.
If your prospecting and only wanted to fish one fly because of wind, extremely clear water, very spooky fish or some other impediment I always focus on flies that I know are consistent with the available food sources even if there is no evidence that they are feeding on them at that time.

If your going to fish just one fly any of the flies below will work at some time … all you have to do is apply the above logic to make the right selection.

Teams of flies

Any of the flies below can be fished in teams and as well as showing how I categorise them in my fly boxes I have indicated where I would fish each category if I were fishing a team of three flies which is legal for lakes in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. In a team of three flies the top fly is called the “top dropper” or “bob” fly, the middle fly is called the “middle dropper” or “attractor” and the fly at the end is called the “point fly”.

Examples of wet flies

I was unsure how best to show examples of wet flies and finally settled on the same categories as I carry them in my fly boxes.

Loch style flies.

Loch Style fly-fishing involves fly-fishing from a boat, side onto the wind, using a system incorporating one or a number of flies. There are both wet and dry lock style fishing techniques. There are four distinct sub sections of loch flies; wake or bob flies, bob flies attractor flies and point flies.Loch

The wet technique involves casting out in the direction of the drift, fishing the flies using a range of techniques. Wet fly loch fly fishing involves basically four separate sub-categories of flies; bob flies which are generally either top water flies or dropper flies or point point flies. There are no strict rules as to where any type of fly should be located in a team but to give some additional guidance I have indicated where I would include them ina team of three flies if I were using them.

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