FishingBanter - View Single Post

**William Claspy**

On 7/25/06 4:42 PM, in article , "Wolfgang"
wrote:

I find it odd that so many fly fishers give both wet flies and streamers
short shrift these days. Both can be every bit as effective, useless,
demanding, frustrating, and rewarding as fishing with dries or nymphs. Both
broaden the range of techniques available the fisher and the tier, and both
increase the likelihood of finding something that will work when nothing
else does.

Watching a fish chase and attack a streamer or a wet is every bit as
exciting as seeing it come up for a dry.....and the spectacle typically
lasts longer.

I've been doing a fair amount of streamer fishing this year and am quite
enjoying it. Frequently it is as visual as watching a rise to a dry, and as
you say, seeing the chase is quite a spectacle. In the spring, our local TU
chapter had a day out on some nice water and I watched a 20+" rainbow come
out from under a log jam to slam the coachman wet I had on. THAT was some
adrenaline. And as the MA boys will tell you, that same fly was somewhat
effective at their elusive Secret Spot , although in that case it was a
blind hook up.

Somewhere around mid June I was reading some darned thing or another
(nothing notable enough to make it into my reading journal, probably one of
the rags) that denigrated streamer fishing as basically half a notch removed
from bait. I mean, I guess it sort of is, but couldn't *all* of our flies,
dry, wet or otherwise, be considered imitations of bait? So why denigrate?

Bill