Wet Flies for Lakes

[tkww]

I've had some moments with smallish soft hackles/flymphs in olives. Usually fished over/around weeds or areas where I have a fair amount of confidence the fish are. I try to incorporate a small amount of flash, whether that's a strand of micro KF in the sparse tail or in the dubbing for the thorax. Not sure if they think it's a Callibeatis nymph or a small damsel. I think retrieve can also be a difference maker.

Also had luck trailing a soft hackle behind a leech. I think the larger fly gets their attention but the smaller fly is a little more "natural" and gets them to commit. But for general searching I'm usually a little larger, be that a Carey, or some other misc creation (not unlike a Gartside, Possy Bugger, etc.).

 

[Bakerite]

For whatever reason, I've come to favor orange or burnt orange for our native coastal cutts in lakes. I'd like to think it is because that choice has been reinforced by positive feedback from the fishes, but I'm enough of a scientist to realize I have no statistically valid evidence for this. Nonetheless, I offer a simple fly that has worked well for me in recent years. I call it the ______ Lake Special. Burnt orange squirrel blend dubbing and English grouse hackle. I also like an orange bodied Doc Sprately, and for one particular lake that has a population of redside shiners, I like the classic Spruce fly.View attachment 102989
View attachment 102993
View attachment 102994

First bug looks a lot like the Carrot Nymph one of the flies recommended by by Enos Bradner in Northwest Angling for coastal cutts. Another one of the ties he liked was the Puget Bug, a small fly with a body of 2 light and one dark moose mane, collar of peacock and then soft partridge hackle. It's got to be a chironomid imitation back before the TDC.

 

[Zak]

.

First bug looks a lot like the Carrot Nymph one of the flies recommended by by Enos Bradner in Northwest Angling for coastal cutts. Another one of the ties he liked was the Puget Bug, a small fly with a body of 2 light and one dark moose mane, collar of peacock and then soft partridge hackle. It's got to be a chironomid imitation back before the TDC.

I learn somethng new every day:

TDC

TDC

flyfishingthesierra.com

 

[Wetswinger]

My father's old favorite. Wet Western Coachman..

 

[Haggis57]

P-Quad - by Mark Olinger, ND. Phil Rowley video of P-Quad tie. Works good trailing behind leech, bugger, Doc Spratley.

 

[Islander]

Super simple and always deadly. The Camo Carey!

 

[Roper]

Super simple and always deadly. The Camo Carey!

Carey special has been my go to for years. @Islander has a great variation in the camo Carey.

 

[Zak]

Halfback:


Olive Willy:

 

[Cliff]

I'm still trying to work my way through some of Dave Westburg's wet flies to see which ones I catch the most fish on.

 

[skyriver]

Most of these are very buggy. I like that. And I don't want to drift the thread too much here, but I get a lot of action when trolling this pretty thing.
Borden Special.

I caught my biggest trout ever on this fly when nothing was working and nothing appeared to be going on. And then I caught like 5 more that day. Since then, it has saved my bacon several times over the years. I'm convinced it's because of it's blob-like colors. Or maybe the trout that we think are finicky are actually just dummies that like pretty stuff.
Isn't there a PowerBait this color?

 

[mcswny]

Halfback:
View attachment 103374

Olive Willy:
View attachment 103375

Zak, how do you fish the half back?

 

[Jeff Dodd]

So many great flies posted.

Reminds me to tie a few I’ve not tied in years.
- Six Pack
- Denny’s AP Emerger (Rickerts)
- Platte River Spider
And of course, the….
- Olive Willie & the Drunk Dragon

 

[Hoofer]

This stuff is pretty fantastic…

 

[Zak]

Zak, how do you fish the half back?

On an intermediate line, either trolling or casting and stripping. I think @iveofione could put on a class on fishing the halfback.

 

[Roper]

Halfback:
View attachment 103374

Olive Willy:
View attachment 103375

@iveofione ties a great halfback…

 

[Cliff]

So many great flies posted.

Reminds me to tie a few I’ve not tied in years.
- Six Pack
- Denny’s AP Emerger (Rickerts)
- Platte River Spider
And of course, the….
- Olive Willie & the Drunk Dragon

View attachment 103535

I could fill my box with Olive Willys and be good for the remainder of my life. I've never fished a fly that caught so many fish as this pattern does. Ditto for the Drunken Dragon, to a lesser degree. Kudos to William Servey for creating these flies.

 

[Jeff Dodd]

I could fill my box with Olive Willys and be good for the remainder of my life. I've never fished a fly that caught so many fish as this pattern does. Ditto for the Drunken Dragon, to a lesser degree. Kudos to William Servey for creating these flies.

On day on Lone Lake, a buddy and I each tied on an Olive Willy. We caught so many fish we had to change flies, it was laughable!

Cheers to William!

 

[Trout Trekker]

Always with me for stillwater Trout: Partridge and Orange tied with a natural hare's mask dubbing ball aft the hackle and tied on a 1XL wet/nymph hook. #12-14

Light Hendrickson #12. Stillwater Trout where Callibaetis are found, after the hatch if the wind is blowing. DOA duns get blown over, drowned, etc., the chop sets them a few inches under the surface. It also is effective post hatch on rivers and streams where p.m.d's are found, size to match hatch.

 

[iveofione]

On an intermediate line, either trolling or casting and stripping. I think @iveofione could put on a class on fishing the halfback.

It is hard to fish a halfback wrong. My first experience was fishing it on a floating line in the surface film during a hatch and having a massive fish take it right at the surface. The take was insignificant, I thought it was probably an 8-10'' fish and was pleasantly surprised.

Then I started fishing it right at the bank in spring and got lots of takes. Nowadays I tie it as a flashback and think it often gets taken for a boatman pattern. I have used it on every line from floater to Type 7 and it just seems to have universal appeal to fish at all depths.

One of the most surprising results came years ago when Coffeepot Lake still had lots of fish. Fishing the closer at the end of September I used a size 12 Halfback on a Type 6 line in 30-40' of water with most of the line off of the spool. I caught fish after fish and this was back when the fish were big and plentiful. How fish could spot that tiny fly down that deep in such a huge lake has always been a mystery to me.

My pattern is very similar to the one that Zak shows but always has a tail. I use pheasant tail fibers fairly short and splay them out. To keep them that way I use a tiny drop of UV and zap it with a light and I also do the same with the legs to keep them away from the body. If you have watched nymphs swim under water you probably noticed that they don't swim with their legs plastered to their body. And they seem to use their tails to navigate much like the rudder and ailerons on a aircraft. They get taken for live nymphs so often that I'm starting to think I might be on to something!

 

[Zak]

Always with me for stillwater Trout: Partridge and Orange tied with a natural hare's mask dubbing ball aft the hackle and tied on a 1XL wet/nymph hook. #12-14

Light Hendrickson #12. Stillwater Trout where Callibaetis are found, after the hatch if the wind is blowing. DOA duns get blown over, drowned, etc., the chop sets them a few inches under the surface. It also is effective post hatch on rivers and streams where p.m.d's are found, size to match hatch.

I'm getting some great ideas from this thread!