"M" wrote in message
...

The only time I catch on wet fly is when I'm retrieving at speed. I have
never yet caught
by casting up stream (and taking up the slack as the fly returns), or
casting downstream
and paying out line. With trout this size though, it's quite possible I'm
getting takes but
never see them?

Yes, this is very likely. When a fish takes a fly that you are retrieving
at speed, the fly's motion through the water sets the hook in the jaw.
When a fish takes a fly in "dead drift" he usually rejects it within one
second and the angler may feel nothing.

So the angler may either fish wet fly for fish he can see (i.e.
observe the take) or must invent a way of seeing a take
move the leader, even if only a millimetre (which movement
a float of some kind often magnifies, or else (a) fish a tight
line with no slack, (b) so as to feel a take in his fingertips
via line and leader, or else use an "induced take" -- as
described by authors Jim Leisenring (American) and Oliver
Kite (British.)

You cannot expect to catch fish if you need to strike but
cannot sense when to strike effectively. Those authors
offer methods to achieve this.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)