Altering Dry Flies to Wet Flies question

There was a thread awhile back on wet fly fishing. I'm
quite interested in fishing the wet fly.
I was wondering if dry flies could be altered on the spot,
say something like an Adams Dry Fly, altered into a wet fly
by cutting down some of the hackle? Or solutions to make
the dry fly sink without adding shots to the leader or tippet.
thanks,
-tom

"Tom Nakashima" wrote

There was a thread awhile back on wet fly fishing. I'm
quite interested in fishing the wet fly.
I was wondering if dry flies could be altered on the spot,
say something like an Adams Dry Fly, altered into a wet fly
by cutting down some of the hackle? Or solutions to make
the dry fly sink without adding shots to the leader or tippet.
thanks,



The properties of the various materials used IS the major element of fly
design.

Dries, if designed well, will have stiff hackles ( to spread the weight of
the fly over more surface area ) and water resisting materials ( to help
maintain floating )

Wets, if well designed, will have soft hackles ( to move with the current
and angler pulsing) and water absorbing materials ( to help it sink and to
add translucence and 'breathing' )


Thus, the answer is "No" A good wet fly is more than just a fly
beneath the surface and a sunken fly designed to float will seldom compete
with a well designed soft hackle or wet

"Larry L" wrote in
:


"Tom Nakashima" wrote

There was a thread awhile back on wet fly fishing. I'm
quite interested in fishing the wet fly.
I was wondering if dry flies could be altered on the spot,
say something like an Adams Dry Fly, altered into a wet fly
by cutting down some of the hackle? Or solutions to make
the dry fly sink without adding shots to the leader or tippet.
thanks,



The properties of the various materials used IS the major element of
fly design.

Dries, if designed well, will have stiff hackles ( to spread the
weight of the fly over more surface area ) and water resisting
materials ( to help maintain floating )

Wets, if well designed, will have soft hackles ( to move with the
current and angler pulsing) and water absorbing materials ( to help it
sink and to add translucence and 'breathing' )


Thus, the answer is "No" A good wet fly is more than just a fly
beneath the surface and a sunken fly designed to float will seldom
compete with a well designed soft hackle or wet




The Usual comes to mind as something that should adapt well for
underwater fishing as a nymph, but as a wet it might be difficult to sink
it.

Try to find a copy of Wet Flies, by Dave Hughes. I think its a pretty
good intro

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"Scott Seidman" wrote



The Usual comes to mind as something that should adapt well for
underwater fishing as a nymph, but as a wet it might be difficult to sink
it.



The "visual' qualities of a Usual DO seem good to base a wet design on ....
but, my point above is that you'd want to change actual materials ...
instead of snowbunny, for instance, you'd look for a more absorbant material
with a similar "look" ..... one of the unique qualities of the snowbunny is
that nature makes his feet stay dry. Come to think of it, I fish a
wet fly early in the Firehole season that uses sparse combed out Antron as a
wing, .... wet it has very much the same apperance as snowbunny, translucent
some sparkle same dun color, but it sucks up water and is soft and wiggly on
top of the visual qualities .

Thanks to Littleton and his suggestion to reread "What the Trout Said" I'm
"keyed on" the difference between design and pattern right now .... it IS a
big difference

For years I've felt and said, to whoever would listen, that good tying
starts by deciding what you want the fly "to do" ...THEN you start looking
for materials ... the common question style "What can I tie with 'name of
material here'?" gets the whole process of quality fly design backwards,
IMHO

"Larry L" wrote

and a sunken fly designed to float will seldom compete with a well
designed soft hackle or wet




That don't parse worth **** , try again ... a fly that was designed to float
won't fish well as a wet ... even if you sink it

Tom Nakashima wrote:
There was a thread awhile back on wet fly fishing. I'm
quite interested in fishing the wet fly.
I was wondering if dry flies could be altered on the spot,
say something like an Adams Dry Fly, altered into a wet fly
by cutting down some of the hackle? Or solutions to make
the dry fly sink without adding shots to the leader or tippet.
thanks,

Sure. Often, if the fly is not too naturally buoyant (like a
humpy) or too loaded with floatant, simply pulling the fly under
by a quick broad swing of the rod tip will be enough to sink the
fly. It's common--and effective--to pull a dry under at the end
of its drag-free dead drift and then complete the drift by
swinging the now-sunk fly until it's directly downstream.

I've trimmed dries to sort of turn them into emergers, but never
so much the final product would be considered a "wet". If I'm
that frustrated by fishing dries, I always have soft hackles or
buggers in my box.

- JR

"JR" wrote


I've trimmed dries to sort of turn them into emergers, but never
so much the final product would be considered a "wet". If I'm
that frustrated by fishing dries, I always have soft hackles or
buggers in my box.



IF you trim all the hackle off a #16/18 yellow humpy, and maybe thin the
tailing, you have a gangbusters PMD emerger ( look closely and that
'humping' wingcase is a key feature of the natural and the tailing ain't a
bad shuck imitation )

But, Tom, take up tying .... I've suggested it to you before G
IMExeperience, tying and the associated study of foodforms ( just tying
"patterns from a pattern book won't teach much ) improves actual fishing far
more than casting practice .... for anyone that can already reasonable
fishing distance casts

"Larry L" wrote in news:NPROh.210579
:

But, Tom, take up tying .... I've suggested it to you before G

Go for it, Tom!! It doesn't get much easier than a partridge and orange.

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"Scott Seidman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
"Larry L" wrote in news:NPROh.210579
:

But, Tom, take up tying .... I've suggested it to you before G

Go for it, Tom!! It doesn't get much easier than a partridge and orange.

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

Yup, fly-tying has been on my mind for quite awhile, I think it's time
to start learning.
Ok, going to another thread for a starter kit for fly tying
-tom

Tom Nakashima wrote:

Yup, fly-tying has been on my mind for quite awhile, I think it's time
to start learning.
Ok, going to another thread for a starter kit for fly tying
-tom

It's simple:

Buy all the tools you need (vise, scissors, bobbin, etc.).

Pick a half-dozen patterns you prefer. Say, three dries and three
nymphs, or whatever. I suggest that you choose them from the
troutflies.com tutorials.

Buy all the materials you need.

Tie a whole bunch of flies.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.