Winged Wets.......design based on misunderstanding?

[redietz]

Well now I get a laugh out of it as well. You swing the wet flies across the current. I can only quote TE Pritt on that.
"'Tis the devil's work my son, and do not let me catch you about it."

More often upsteam or up and across, with a very short line; I grease my top dropper and leader. Of course if the fish want it the other way, I'm willing to oblige.

[Byron haugh]

Bob,
What waters do you fish most frequently?

[redietz]

The stream that I fish the most (like at least once a week, 12 months a year) is the Gunpowder Falls in Maryland. It's a medium-sized tailwater with 4000 wild brown trout per mile. Lots of long pools and glides 3-4 feet deep, what Dave Huges describes as perfect wet-fly water. (Plenty of riffles, too.) A good variety of hatches. I'm also on the PA limestoners about once a month (yes fish in the Letort will take a wet fly.)

[Byron haugh]

Yrs, a wet fly, but, a winged wet? LOL

[redietz]

Yrs, a wet fly, but, a winged wet? LOL

You'd be surprised at how well a Pale Evening Dun/Little Marryat works during a sulfur hatch/spinner fall. Put floatant on it, add a soft hackle 18 inches below, cast upstream. It lies flat on the water, like a dead spinner and makes a great striking indicator. If it gets down stream unmolested, give it small tug to sink it, feed it some slack, and let it continue down. It's by far my most productive tactic on spring creeks when the sulfurs are on.

It works in the west when the PMDs are on the water, too. My biggest fish ever from Henry's Fork took a winged wet, and I once had a 30 fish evening on the Gallatin using the technique described above. (My biggest ever from that stream took a leadwing coachman, cast straight upstream, but that was over caddis flies.)

This generally only works in the match-the-hatch conditions, though. It's not a good technique to fish the water blind.

[jszymczyk]

It boils down to the fact that in reality, trout are not "smart"... why at times will they absolutely smash a fast-stripped size 8 woolly bugger in the middle of a BWO hatch, why even so-called picky trout will hit a mepps spinner in a clear stream... winged wets apparently represent something the trout interpret as edible so they hit them. There is no "misunderstanding" that the style works, and has worked more or less forever.

[Byron haugh]

Good stuff, Bob.
I will be fishing the HF next week. Will be using wingless wets in ways similar to those you describe.

Have done well there when a Drakes come off with a wet Green Drake.

A nice Henry's Fork Rainbow on a Green Drake Wet. If you look at the lower corner of the mouth, you will see it.

[Byron haugh]

Looking through Leonard's "Flies" of 1950 and found this quote while he was discussing the female Caddis' diving to deposit her eggs:

"It has been presumed by several authorities that the wet fly was first dressed to simulate the female caddis in her underwater venture. Perhaps this is so. However, it seems more likely to me that the anglers of centuries ago observed the myriad aerial flies and copied them as best they could with the materials available, but fished them wet after the habit of using bait for so many years."

I found his musing interesting.

[Fontinalis]

I have fished classic winged wets for over 20 years. I fish them depending on the stream condition, on high to medium stream conditions with flow I use an intermediate sinking line and on lower stream conditions I use a DT floating line. I also fish these classic wet flies with with much success in size 6 and now mostly size 8. I do at times need to go down in size to a size 12. Now I have tyed 90% of the patterns listed in Ray Bergmans Book Trout. I have also tyed numerous English, Irish and scottish winged wets as well. I have over a hundred patterns now that I have fished with and learned about when they work under stream conditions and time of year. Yes I do fish with a lot of the classic winged wet flies mentioned, but I also hves fished classic winged wet like:

1) Professor
2) Blue Professor
3) Blue Bottle
4) Telephone Box
5) Thunder
6) Black Gnat two different patterns
7) Romaine (deadly pattern in the Catskills, NJ and PA)
Black Turkey
9) Montreal
10 Invicta, & Silver Invicta
11) King and Queen of The Waters
12) White Millers (Good Nightime pattern when Moths Present)
13) Cupsuptic
14) Last Chance
15) Ferguson

I could go on and on and not to mention a few of my very own winged wet creations. Winged wets have their place and are extremely effective. You just have to know when to use them and how to fish them. I also use soft hackle wet flies and also have fished like many have with an Orange Fish Hawk or a Bracken Clock. A true wet fly angler uses all types of wet flies, soft Hackles, Flymphs and classic winged wets.