Pro Tip: Wet Fly Tactics

It’s early spring and the hatches will be coming off soon.  You have your rod rigged with two wet flies in anticipation of a good day of fishing.  What is the best way to present those wet flies to get the trout to strike?  Wet fly tactics are not difficult to learn but vary drastically from commonly used tactics.  However, the skills used in wet fly fishing are the same as other tactics, one just needs to change your approach.  This article will present skills and tactics used for wet fly fishing.

Wet fly fishing is a tactic that attempts to emulate a hatching or rising insect.  Many insects live on the bottom of the stream and need to rise through the water column to hatch into the adult form.  Wet fly fishing mimics the behavior of a rising insect.  To make an effective wet fly presentation, the angler will need to change a few things from the typical nymphing presentations.

Positioning

For starters, fish downstream.  An angler should stand upstream and across from where the trout are holding.  The angler will be facing downstream.  On typical small to medium streams around NC, I may be standing near one stream bank and be able to fish the entire width of the river.   On larger rivers, one may need to stand in the middle of the river to reach likely spots.

The Cast

Once in position, the target is downstream and across the stream.  I am targeting an area to land the fly that will allow the fly to swing across the stream in front of the trout.  Typically, it is 30 to 45 degrees downriver from where the angler stands.  The farther downstream one casts the less the flies will sink and the slower they will swing.  One common mistake is casting directly across the river or upstream.  This can adversely affect the swing.  Make sure the fly land downstream of you, otherwise your fly will be pulled too fast across the river by the current.

It is essential for an angler to be able to cast correctly using a fly rod.  Most often one will not be using any weight or very little and one should be able to cast the fly rod in a grassy yard 25 ft. or so without any weight on the leader.  I say this because most beginners learn to fish using heavily weighted nymph rigs.  This weight makes it easy to cast without using proper technique.  Practice until you can hit a hula hoop at 25 ft. without any weight on the leader and straighten out the leader.

Once an angler can cast 25 ft., practice cross body cast and side arm cast.  Because of the position on the stream, these two casts will be your typical casts while wet fly fishing.  On small streams, one will be using a roll cast more often.  You should be able to make this cast from both sides of your body so you can fish from both sides of the stream.  If you can aerial cast, practice side arm casting.  This will make fishing a small to medium size stream easier and keep you out of the overhanging bushes.

The Swing

Wet fly fishing is about the behavior of the fly.  The angler is swinging the fly across the river, trying to make it rise and fall in the water column.  Start by letting the current catch the line and start to pull on the fly.  At this point, one is pointing the rod tip toward where the fly landed.  Once the current is pulling on the line, begin slowly swinging the rod tip across the current, guiding the fly across the stream.  At the end of the swing, your rod will be pointing directly downstream from your position.   The key here is a slow swing.  Most anglers new to wet fly fishing cast too far upstream and swing the fly too fast.  This isn’t streamer fishing and fast retrieves don’t work as well.

Once the fly is on the water, an angler needs to manage the line using the rod to enhance the presentation and make the fly move the way you want it.  An angler wet fly fishing may use tracking, mending, stripping, and feeding in order to achieve their desired results.  These techniques are used with other fly-fishing tactics, as well so it is a good idea to learn them.

An angler can use the rod tip to vary the swing while tracking the fly.  First, the height of the rod tip controls the depth of the fly.  If you want the flies deeper, keep the rod tip closer to the water surface.  If you want the flies higher in the water column, raise the rod tip further off the water.  Raising and lowering the rod tip will cause the flies to rise and fall in the water column.  This imitates the rising insects.  One can also use this technique to maneuver the line over rocks that may hang up the line.  Sometimes a slow rise will cause a strike, other times a quicker twitching rise.  Sometimes a stall or holding the fly in a single spot will induce a strike.  You’ll need to experiment to find out what the trout are looking for.  Each day can be different.

Setting the hook

The most challenging aspect for some learning to wet fly fish is setting the hook.  Trout generally take the fly aggressively.  They are trying to get to the fly before it reaches the surface and hatches.  Couple this with the trout being downstream can pull a lot of stress on the tackle system.  The hardest part of the set is learning to “give with the take”.  Most angling situation call for an anchor set to put enough force on the hook to set it.  If you jerk up on the rod when the trout takes a wet fly presentation, you are liable to break the tippet or yank the hook out.  Let the trout set the hook for you.

When a trout takes a wet fly presentation, it is aggressive and they generally turn back downstream.  You will feel and possibly see the take.  Release the line under your finger that you are using to hold the line against the handle and raise the rod.  I tell people to point at the fish with their finger. It helps to have about 2’ of slack between your reel and the line finger that anchors the line against the rod.  This action of releasing and slipping line out will “give with take” as the fish strikes the fly.  It improves the hook-up and reduces the impact on the tippet.  If you master the slip set, setting the hook wet fly fishing becomes easy.  Most folks who learn this find wet fly fishing easier than nymph fishing.  For one reason, it is easier to recognize strikes and second the trout sets the hook for you.

With a little practice and adding a few wet flies to the box, most anglers can easily add wet fly fishing to their arsenal of tactics.  I have caught trout year-round using wet flies.    However, observe the situation and use wet fly fishing when the trout are feeding in the water column or in the shallower water.  If they are deep and on the bottom, use nymphing.   With a little luck and practice you’ll soon find trout taking your wet flies this spring.

Patrick Weaver
patrick@headwatersoutfitters.com