Fly Casting/Wet Flies, etc.

[Canoetripper]

Fellow Board members,

I am taking my 3rd fly fishing course on July 10, which is also my birthday(63), so I shouldn't forget it. TCO Yellow Breeches.

The other two were euro nymphing, also with TCO, on Spring Creek in State College, and Precision Fly and Tackle in Lancaster on Lititz Run.

I learned a lot but want to learn more and get better.

This weekend I am going to my R&G club in the Poconos and will primarily fish soft hackle and wet flies unless surface activity changes everything.

The reason why is that I have always fished there with wooly buggers, and they work. My biggest problem with them though is that I strip them and then have a big pile of line at my legs, which causes me to be a bad fly caster.

One thing that I have noticed in most You Tube fly casting videos is that the fly line is always out there and much easier to load than when it is all stripped in and right at your feet.

I need to be a better fly caster than I am right now and I think that swinging wet fly/soft hackles will help if my fly line is already out there and easier to load on my back cast.

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Especially those with what fly combos to fish with, I think that I need some bead heads, but this is very new to me.

Thanks in advance,

CT

 

[redietz]

Well, it's certainly true that if most of your line is out and you're fishing downstream that it's easier to load the rod. Generally, I do no false casting at all in those circumstance; just pick up and cast. Whether that makes for better caster, I don't know, but it makes casting easier.

You don't need beadheads. Think of soft hackles and wet flies as an alternative to dry flies, not as an alternative to nymphs.

As for which to use, at moment, on the theory that there are sulfurs all over te place, I'd start with a team of two, one of which would be yellowish, like a partridge and yellow or a Tup's spider. The other fly would be a pheasant tail soft hackle, preferably with a yellow or orange thorax.

Other soft hackle you might want to try would be a hare's ear flymph or a partridge and orange (the latter especially towards evening.)

Good luck. It's an enjoyable way to fish.

 

[jifigz]

Everyone says it, but they're right. You can't fish a soft hackle improperly. Weight em and fish em like a nymph under an indicator. Or let em drift and swing right under the water's surface. Fishing soft hackle right under the surface during a hatch is a great way to catch fish.

Soft hackles are easy flies to be creative with and easy flies to tie. I have been doing very well on them.

If you're struggling with casting, I just think you need to work on your casting..sounds silly, I know, but I mean it.

 

[hooker-of-men]

jifigz wrote:
Everyone says it, but they're right. You can't fish a soft hackle improperly.

With that said, I have a question that's been on my mind:

I've been having some luck learning to fish wets (and some caddis dries I've been forcing to act like wet flies), but I've only got fish when all line is out, is taut, and I am raising the rod to pull the fly back upstream subsurface.

In those scenarios, I have either been able to see or easily feel the take. However, let's say I cast slightly above where I think fish are feeding and the fly is drifting under the surface but on a pretty slack line down to where I am targeting. If I get an unexpected take while the line is slack - which I simply don't think I've had happen to test this scenario - is it likely I am going to see or feel it?

Essentially, I'm wondering if the slack line bite is going to be subtle and easily missed like when a fish takes a nymph or if it is more likely that I'll know right away?

Thanks

 

[fritz]

In my experience unless your line is really very slack, you're gonna know it. If I cast upstream I take line in by hand stripping or twist method all depending on current speed. There is a video on the forum here somewhere that someone posted fishing wets upstream.

 

[redietz]

hooker-of-men wrote:
If I get an unexpected take while the line is slack - which I simply don't think I've had happen to test this scenario - is it likely I am going to see or feel it?

Likely you'l see it. If you see anything that looks like a rise near where you think your fly is, raise your rod tip. Also watch the end of your line as if it were a strike indicator. If it does anything unusual, lift.

Chances are, though, if you're fishing downstream, even if there is temporarily some slack, you'l still feel it.

 

[Tups]

Get a copy of “the Soft Hackle Fly” by Sylvester Nemes. He explains how to fish them across and down while keeping in contact. He used the greased line technique. Cast across and continually mend your line gently to avoid excess slack. Book is likely 50$ but worth it.