More on Dave Hughes’ Wet Fly Techniques

Posted on by

I’ve been reading Dave Hughes’ book “Wet Flies” recently, and it’s caused me to think a lot more about how I fly fish.  On a brief outing to the Middle Deschutes River last week, I took my 8′  0″  5 wt slow action rod to swing some of Dave’s recommended patterns for the local browns.  The “Silver Invicta” in a size 14 proved to be a great fly to swing through shallower riffles, and it brought many feisty browns in the 7″ to 12″ range to the net.  I think I’ll be using Dave’s wet fly techniques a lot more in my fishing outings, especially on smaller water.  Check it out:

Wet Flies by Dave Hughes

The Silver Invicta

The browns in the middle Deschutes River couldn’t resist a swung fly.

 

4 thoughts on “More on Dave Hughes’ Wet Fly Techniques”

  1. Dave, Amazing coincidence, this past week I was fishing our local stream and the fish were rising steadily all around me but my match the hatch dries were not producing. I had some prior hook-ups on another river, W.Branch of the Delaware, on soft hackles but I decided to try a traditional wet tied on behind my dry. Wham! 1st cast out brought up a 16″ Bow. several others followed.
    I am now a convert. These fish have been fished very hard since stocking this past Spring and I am sure they have seen it all by now. Best Fishes!

  2. Hi Larry,

    It’s great to hear from you. Yep, sometimes we just need to go “old school” to fool the fish. I’m going to be trying out some of these old style winged wet flies more often in my fishing adventures. Best of luck. Dave

  3. Hello Dave,
    If you want to check out some great info on “Traditional” Wets look up Don Bastian on the web. He is a local PA tier who is the hands down authority. He teaches classes at LL Bean every year in Maine. He ties some beautiful flies and tells you how to tie them.
    Another source for some inspiration on the subject is a web site by a professor by the name of Neil Norman. He has been writing about the “soft Hackle Tight Lines” (his websites name) , patterns passed down to us through antiquity giving there historical background and various patterns. Interesting. Some much to learn eh?
    That’s what great about the sport, learning, fishing, the beautiful places the sport takes us and the great people we come to know by participating. Best to you and Mary Ann, Larry

Comments are closed.