What would you look for if you were to hold the fly in your hand and didn't know its name or how it was intended to be fished?
By "wet" i mean nymphs as well as traditional "wet" flies.
How to distinguish between dry and wet flies?
What would you look for if you were to hold the fly in your hand and didn't know its name or how it was intended to be fished?
By "wet" i mean nymphs as well as traditional "wet" flies.
Last edited by HCR; 11-02-2009 at 12:51 AM.
No man can have too many fly rods;
no woman too many shoes.
This is a partial answer at best. If there's a stiff and/or bushy collar of feather barbs (hackle) around it, it's a dry fly. Same if it's foam or made with CDC or snowshoe foot. Dry flies usually have longer tails. If you hold them in your hand, the dry flies often weigh less than wet flies and are often tied on lighter weight hooks. Wet flies use less hackle and it's often swept back.
Mainly, the wing position (angle). That's a clear characteristic on wets. Not vertical as on dries.
Wets are -also- tied on heavy hooks.
the dries came out of the dry fly section of the fly case at the fly shop, while the wet flies came out of the wet fly section. i thought everybody knew this. ??????
As far as the intent behind the design, look at the wings & hackle, as has been stated. Stiff hackle and upright wings = dry, swept back wings & soft hackle = wet.
As far as fish catching...try flies both ways. If it absolutely will not float, fish it wet. If it floats, fish it dry till it sinks, then fish it wet.
I've caught more trout on a light cahill that had 'drowned', than I have with it's intended presentation.
Toss is in the water, if it floats it's a dry fly-if it sinks it's a wet fly. Regardless of what they call it. I think it is more a question of how the fly is fished, then of how the fly is catagorized. I don't get too worked up over the name.
There are a lot of flies (like the Hornberg, wooly bugger, royal coachman trude) that can be dead drifted downstream as a dry fly then stripped back up stream as a wet.
The construction of a fly will effect it's bouancy. If I want a fly to float well I tie it with a lot of good quality rooster hackle, if I want it to sink I would tie it sparse and use a soft webby hen hackle.
If it floats it's a dry.
If it sinks it's wet.
Good fishing technique trumps all.....wish I had it.
tyer's solution
tye with different color thread on the head. it may not match the recipe, but.... 4 colors, one for dry and 3 for wets, each color indicates the amount of weight, ie, light, med, or heavy. May be more applicable to warm water tyers
Originally Posted by Cold
Stiff hackle and swept back wings = trudes (a dry)
Of course, parachutes and fan-wings are dry, at least by intent.
Ed
I think I'll try something like this. I have a batch of flies I tied that all look the same but are weighted differently and at this point, I have no idea which is who.
Kevin
Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some person ever reads.
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