Swingin’ wets

[dc410]

I spent parts of Saturday and Sunday this past weekend with a few friends fishing one of PA’s Keystone Select waters in Central PA. It was a chilly weekend but we caught enough fish to definitely keep it interesting. All three of us were fishing wet flies the whole time on 9’ 3 fly wet fly leaders. We fished Saturday afternoon into the early evening and the water was fairly stained and running at 57 degrees. The fish were actively feeding up in the water column but it seemed that the bite turned on and off like a light switch as the sun continually was in and out of the cloud cover. We never did really dial in exactly what the fish were keying on. There was a lot of bug activity with larger tannish colored mayflies, smaller mayflies (probably BWOs), small crane flies, little brown stoneflies and an occasional caddis.

On Sunday, when we headed out it was 38 degrees - Brrrr! We fished a different section of the creek midday and the water temperature was a degree or two colder than the day before and there was significantly less bug activity. My buddy caught one of those big “keystone select” rainbows, his biggest trout ever on his 3 weight outfit. I caught fish on all three flies on my leader (top, middle and point) on both days. Flies that produced for me were: pheasant tail soft hackle, sparrow nymph, Tups indispensable, partridge and green and a Breadcrust. I finished up the outing mid afternoon on Sunday with a double of two decent fish (brownie on top dropper on a Sparrow nymph and a Rainbow on a Breadcrust on the point). It was a lot of fun and was great to finally get out and get some stream time with some good friends.

 

[EchoRidgeElder]

Nice write-up. Thanks for posting.

 

[JMP]

I fished a longer riffle stretch and landed several fish early in the morning. I walked the path downstream to a calmer area I had planned to try some wet flies. It was occupied, so I walked back up to the lower end of the riffled water and caught a few more on my version of a blue quill wet fly. I enjoy the tug on the line you get when wet fly fishing. I missed as many as I landed.

 

[bdhoover77]

I really enjoy swinging wet flies. I haven’t done it yet this year, and I think I need to change that.

 

[ROVERT]

I decided to invest time in fishing wet flies a couple years ago and am really glad I did. It has become second only to dry fly fishing for me.

A team of three wet flies is very versatile. They can be fished so many different ways with minimal adjustment. I leave a tag of tippet off of my point fly so that I can add weight to it.

I swing them unweighted

I swing them weighted.

I dead drift them in the film.

I dead drift them sunk.

I put heavy weight on them and an indicator and nymph with them.

One rig with the addition, or removal, of split shot can do so many things.

 

[DomR]

I decided to invest time in fishing wet flies a couple years ago and am really glad I did. It has become second only to dry fly fishing for me.

A team of three wet flies is very versatile. They can be fished so many different ways with minimal adjustment. I leave a tag of tippet off of my point fly so that I can add weight to it.

I swing them unweighted

I swing them weighted.

I dead drift them in the film.

I dead drift them sunk.

I put heavy weight on them and an indicator and nymph with them.

One rig with the addition, or removal, of split shot can do so many things.

I love wets, its the most relaxing way that I fish, the perfect anecdote to a beatch of a work day. Did some swinging last night, 3 fly rig - P&O soft hackle as the top fly tied off the tippet ring, PT nymph as the middle fly, and GHRE traditional wet as the point. Each took fish.

 

[CinnamonJoe]

Last year, Oct-Dec, as the surface activity and terrestrials waned, swinging wets was my primary technique, along with dead drift nymphing. I would not call myself an expert at wet fly fishing by any means, but I consistently caught fish on a 2-fly rig (most we are allowed here in Iowa). Arriving on stream many times over the years to zero surface activity; on waters I knew held plenty of trout, motivated me to give it a try many years ago, and I am glad I did.

If you read some of my posts, partridge & olive and partridge & orange figure prominently, and are basically what I consider my 'confidence' flies.

Joe