Fly Fishing Flies: What Kinds Are There?
If you're like many of us and you don't have the time or patience to make your own flies, or if you have questions as to what kind of fly fishing lures are out there, then you've come to the right place. While we could never describe every single different kind of fly lure out there, we can give you a basic idea of what to look for. Now, a lot of people will tell you that one kind of fly is better than the other, but it really depends upon your own personal experience. We encourage you to experiment, because with trial and error comes learning - after all, for everything that DOESN'T work, you're one step closer to something that does (or at least you know what not to do again)! Wet Flies and Nymphs Historians will argue about which came first - wet flies or dry flies. It's kind of like the old question about the chicken and the egg. Don't worry too much about historical stuff for the time being, though - what it really boils down to is biology. Wet flies generally represent a stage in the life of aquatic or amphibious animals -- that is, insects, frogs, crayfish, lobsters, so on and so forth. These creatures lay their eggs in the water; they gestate, grow, and eventually become larvae, nymphs, tadpoles, or what have you. Wet flies are designed, for the most part, out of softer materials that give them a flowing appearance in the currents of a stream or pond or river, which is especially inviting to predacious fish. They are also designed to sink toward the bottom more quickly, rather than floating on the surface. Nymphs, on the other hand, hang in the middle of the water column. They're designed to mimic the second stage of a lot of insect life, which fish will snap up voraciously when the opportunity arises. The cool thing about wet fly fishing is that it's good for beginners--or for places you've never fished before, if you're a more experienced angler. You don't need the perfect flick of a wrist snap-cast in order to hook some respectable fish with lures that have to be set in a certain way or else you'll lose your quarry. What's more, they are conducive to the ancient method of dropper flies, which can have the pleasant result of hooking you more than one fish. Really, wet flies are a lot simpler to use...and some people view them as less of a challenge than dry flies, which we'll discuss next. Dry Flies If you're interested in a challenge, dry flies are the way to go. These flies float on the surface and are all about presentation - in order to use a dry fly effectively, it has to look and act like an insect that has landed on the water and is floating there by surface tension rather than being held aloft by your line. Since the legs of most insects allow them to quite literally walk or skip on water, this can be very difficult indeed. In order to catch your fish, you must present the fly perfectly or near-perfectly, wait for it to bite, and then pull back in order to set the hook in its mouth. Either way you're going to go, we would recommend investing a little bit of money into your cast. Fly fishing lessons cost a little bit less than golf lessons, on average...Which would you rather do - drag a cart full of clubs around a green, chasing a little ball around, while trying to smack it with a stick to get it into a hole way off in the distance…or have the chance to snag a tasty trophy trout? (No offense to golf fans, of course...) We thought so. Happy fishing! Related Articles |
