Fishing wet flies

Harvey Clark in his fishing column in the New Zealand Herald on 27 October, recommended fishing with small wet flies. Harvey quoted from the following chapter of 101 Troutfishing Tips.

Fishing with the wee wets

The art of fishing wee wets has been lost for a generation or two but alert anglers are becoming aware of the success that can be had fishing these small wet flies across and down, especially in riffles. If the riffle is fast flowing, the cast should be more down than across as the fish will not be holding in the centre of the riffle. So cast at an angle of around 45 degrees across and down the river. Allow the wet fly to swing round out of the fast water and follow its movement by pointing the rod at the fly. Mending or retrieving line should not be necessary. As the fly moves into the seam between the fast and slower water, give the flyline a couple of strips with your line hand to give some movement to your wet fly. When the fly is resting in the slow water directly below your casting position, give it a couple of more twitches before recasting.
Where the riffle is slower, the technique is rather different. You need to cast your sinking line more upstream to give it time to sink in the choppy water. The cast is usually made at ninety degrees across the river or a little upstream if needed. It is then necessary to mend the line as otherwise the line between you and the fly will be seized by the current and form a bow. If this happens, then the bowed section will accelerate the swing of the fly across the riffle at too fast a speed. Small fish might be fooled by such a fast swing but not a good fish.
To summarise:
• Mend upstream to slow the fly down
• Mend downstream to speed it up
• Feed slack line to slow it down
• Retrieve line to speed it up
If the mend is right, then you will be in direct contact with the fly when it starts swinging across the riffle when it reaches the 45 degree point. From this point on you can expect a strike.
The fierceness of the strike can vary considerably. When the fish are feeding actively, there can be a hit that is strong enough to break 3 kg tippets. At other times, especially in slower water, there is just a soft pluck and a momentary stop in the movement of the line across the riffle. These soft takes are not easy to detect and it takes a lot of experience to know you have a strike. In such situations, the decision to strike is more by instinct than anything else.
Fishing the wet fly takes a bit of practice and learning but it can prove very effective, especially in the twilight hours. At such times, a wee wet can out fish any other trout fly.