Should streamers, wets and nymphs be weighted on the hook shank or by adding weight on the leader. I’ve recently heard that the latter is better because it lets the fly move more naturally in the current. What are your thoughts ?
Ray,
I’ve caught so many fish using both methods that I really can’t tell any difference in effectiveness on the water. That being said, though, you can use the diferences to refine our presentations.
Remember that weight effects not only DEPTH, but MOVEMENT as well.
If you weight the fly itelf, you can control HOW it moves in still water and somewhat less in current.
Weighting the leader gives you only a nose down fall in stillwater, and something similar but abated a bit by the current’s drag on both the fly and the weight in moving water.
I find this ability to control the ‘fall’ is more important with streamer patterns, especially in still waters, and less of an issue in moving water with wet flies and nymphs.
Also, if you want ANY fly to get all the way down to the bottom in any current above a crawl, the fly has to ‘outweigh’ the weight in front of it, otherwise hydrodynamics ensure that it will ride ABOVE the heavier weight. Can be either a good or bad thing, depending on what you want the fly to do, though.
As far as movement in the current is concerned, lighter ‘things’, whether it be flies, folks, or critters, will be more effected by the forces acting on them than heavier ‘things’.
This, however, applies to the whole fly. The movement caused by the ‘materials’ used in the fly could be more or less with weight added depending on the material.
Think about how a flag anchored to pole ‘flaps’, but let it loose, and it will move different, i.e; blow away on the wind. Still moving, but differently.
If the weight added to the fly is sufficient to hold some against the current, then the materials thus ‘anchored’ will move differently and often ‘more’ than the same fly if it is just moving with the current.
Then add in a weight ahead of the fly on the leader, and you get some resistance to the current AND some ‘drag’ on the line/leader that causes diffferent movements.
There are times and places for both. And times to use BOTH a weighted fly and some weight on the tippet. Depends on the presentation you are after.
That’s probably clear as mud, but kinetically it’s not a real simple issue. Too many variables.
Bottom line, though, is use what you WANT to use. Likely it will work okay, since we are after fish here, and they ain’t THAT smart.
Good Luck!
Buddy
I don’t know about other states but in Oregon’s fly fishing only waters you cannot have any weight that is not part of the fly. Bead heads are OK, split shot on the leader is not. Just something else to consider.
Ray,
Buddy’s reply gives excellent advise in great detail. Dave Hughes, whom I greatly respect, ties many of his subsurface flies with “a bit” of weight, adding more to the leader if the situation requires it. I’ve followed his advise and like it.
Bill