Tips for a Wet Hot Fly Fishing Summer
Tie and image by Peter Steen
In the world of fly fishing for trout, dry flies rule. Every fly angler out there, from the foam-chucking rookie to the size-24-on-8x-tippet-loving veterans, dream of rising trout sipping drifting bugs off the surface. Dry flies are iconic and have shaped fly fishing culture by creating their own sect of “dry or die” obsessive anglers that twitch and dance their bugs on the surface with more enthusiasm than a busload of Swifties playing “Shake It Off” over a loudspeaker. Yet this dry fly mania means that there are a lot of anglers out there who are overlooking and, quite frankly, missing out on another style of fly. One that offers some fantastic fish catching opportunities, especially during the summer months—the wet fly.
Now, when I say wet fly, I’m not talking about nymphs or streamers, but the classic, soft-hackle-collared patterns brought over from Europe in the 1850’s. Though they are a bit old school, these simple yet efficient flies are some of the best trout-catching fly patterns on the water. What’s more, despite many anglers believing wet flies are effective only during colder months when trout don’t rise, when trout are hot, tired, and wary after being hammered by the dry-fly mafia, wet flies often catch big summer fish when nothing else will.
What Wet Flies Imitates
Wet flies are designed to imitate the latter stages of an insect’s life cycle. When nymphs are ready to hatch, they shuck their skins and begin to rise/float to the surface of the water to mature and become adults. During this process, trout will feed on the rising and swimming nymphs beneath the surface like a starving Labrador that’s gotten into its kibble bag. Whether they’re inhaling them from the rocks just above the bottom, engulfing them in the middle of the water column, or boiling on them just below the surface, there’s rarely a time when a trout won’t take one of these developing insects. And wet flies make the perfect match.
There are a few different ways to fish wet flies with techniques varying according to what part of the river you’re fishing and what you’re seeing on the water. You can fish them low-and-slow along the bottom, drift or twitch them a few feet under the water, or skate and swim them just beneath surface. All of these methods can be equally effective, so long as you know when and where to use them.
Swinging Wet Flies
Swinging wet flies is probably the most popular and successful wet fly fishing method. Similar to swinging a streamer, you swing wet flies by casting them down and across the stream at a 45-degree angle then swimming or “swinging” them across the river on a tight line so they come to rest directly downstream. It’s a fantastic way to cover water when you don’t see a lot of trout rising (or any at all) or for getting down and creating action in deeper water.
You can swing both weighted and unweighted wet flies or, if you’re feeling froggy, one of each. My personal favorite set up when I’m trying to find fish is to add 18 to 24 inches of tippet to my leader with a long, 5 to 8 inch tag end, and then tying a heavier bead head soft-hackle like a Bird’s Nest or a Red Head Prince to the bottom of the line. Then I’ll tie an unweighted soft hackle like a Starling Softie or a Red Ass to the tag end. This combination allows me to swing flies through two different areas of the water column at once with the bead head fly drifting along the bottom and the unweighted soft hackle swinging through mid-water. It’s a great combo for seeking out trout on those warm summer days when there’s just nothing else happening on the river.
Another good strategy for swinging wet flies is running a pair of unweighted or lightly weighted soft hackles like a Swing Caddis and a Gizmo just beneath the surface. This can be especially effective when you see trout backs breaching like dolphins as they feed on emergers just below the surface. It’s also a great way to find fish on darker cloudy days when you can’t spot them in the water.
Drifting Wet Flies
Drifting wet flies isn’t like drifting nymphs, primarily because you don’t use any sort of strike indicator. Instead, fish the flies like you would a dry fly by casting them into a juicy looking seam, mending appropriately, and then allowing them to free drift with the current. As the flies drift, keep a close eye on your line, setting the hook anytime the line stops, twitches or, of course, when you feel a tug.
Drifting wet flies is a great strategy on bright sunny days when trout are holding tight to the bank or cover like logs and rocks or when their holding in the middle of the river above a deep hole. Unlike drifting a dry fly, drifting wet flies is usually most effective when you add a bit of action, so feel free to add a few twitches or pulses with your rod tip as the flies cruise along. It can be just the thing to trigger a lazy summer fish into striking.
Wet Fly Droppers
Using an unweighted wet fly as a dropper can be incredibly effective, especially when there are a lot of caddis in the water. You can add them to a big dry fly caddis pattern, a hopper, or any sort of large attractor pattern. They can be incredibly effective both before, during, and after a caddis hatch as trout will hunt for emerging and drowned caddis throughout the entire day.
Get Out and Get Wet
Fly fishing is very much like a religion with different clans of anglers completely dedicating themselves to certain techniques and disciplines. This is especially true of dry fly devotees who, no matter what the weather or water conditions are or how often other anglers try to convince them otherwise, will steadfastly stick to drifting their favorite fly patterns on top of the water. Yet, during the summer when the water is warm and the trout are finicky, those adherent disciples of the dry fly often go home skunked. So instead of being a complete dry fly junkie all the time, when the weather gets hot and the fish won’t rise, why not take a walk on the wet side? You might be glad you did.
