So what is a wet fly?...fished wet? I think you mean the old classic winged patterns. They could imitate a small bait fish, a drowned adult bug, an emerger bug coming off the bottom to hatch out. They are making a comeback. You do not see them in flyshop fly bins much in many locals, but anglers are tying them up and fishing them. Davey Wooten, a famous guide on the White River in Arkansas fishes 3 at a time spaced out along his leader, and fishes them very successfully in his special way from a boat. I'm a big wet fly soft hackle fisherman, and my soft hackles are very similar to the classic wet flies, but without the feather wings.

You can also grease up a soft hackle and fish it in the film as an emerger, especially for caddis hatches. It's killer, and a dirty trick to play on trout. I caught several large browns and 'bows this past year using this technique. And winged wets work just about any way, swung or dead drifted, one or more at a time--though I have to say I seldom fish more than one at a time. Too many tangles, even with short, short droppers and a modified(read:open loop)casting stroke.

I concur what backcast has posted. Some other info. The old guy that promoted the softhackle back into prominence, Sylvester Nymes, who past away awhile back, did fish softhackles exclusively down and across with controlled slack, AND IN THE FILM always as an emerger bug near the surface. Many followed doing the same thing, but now I find there are good anglers fishing the softhackles, and could be the winged wets, upstream, and might sink them using a bead head, or some wt. on the leader etc., and fished dead drifted back down, and below you. However you choose to fish them. I fish them at various depths initially by the wt. of the bead, getting some down more than others, and then it will rise, and swing down and across. Many fish are caught on the swing, but also, at the end where the fly pauses, and then a slight strip-strip pause, as if the bug were emerging out...the fish follows the bug, and then feels compelled to take it before it gets away. Wooten fishes these wets on "set" of them, spaced out from bottom on up covering the water, and each represents a somewhat different stage. He fishes the bottom one down near the bottom, and the other two as rising bugs. The cast is straight out to the side, and the line held then under tension, and the flies follow the drift of the boat.

Flytie, Syl Nemes is definitely worth checking out. He's written a number of books, if you only read one I'd recommend his first, "The Soft Hackled Fly". He gives the history of soft hackles, how to tie 'em, fish 'em and so forth. The soft hackle is what I call a "low tech, high concept" fly. They imitate just about anything a fish eats. More often than not, there's one on the end of my tippet, even dropped off a dry fly. Personal note: Syl's first trout fishing excursion, as he relates in the book, took place in Kane, Pennsylvania, right down the road from me. I often fish the streams around Kane and like to think that Syl prowled those same streams, so many years before. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I'll have leftovers comin' out my gills for the next week!

Here's a real plus for reading Sylester's recent book he wrote before he died. He put Sayfu's concept of how to tie small softhackles in the book. I sat down with Sy, and he had me diagram it out for him how to do it. Quite a feather in my cap. And I wish I could have taken him fishing. He had a fellow angler that wanted to go with him, and I sent him out to a run with even currents that would fish his softhackles the best that I have done well fishing them there as well.

Not sure myself, but I think it is the Revised addition. I heard from someone else who bought the book that I was included in it. Never have seen it. When I sat down with him, and I am guessing that it was 5 to 7 yrs ago. he was putting the book together at that time. I didn't even know it was Nemes when I sat down at his booth. I sat down because I saw a soft hackle in his vice, and there was a chair in front of him that was available. We have about 100 tiers a session in the big auditorium where they tie. He said, "Sit down, I'll tie you one. Sure wish I could tie one smaller than #12, or #14 though" I told him, "I can do it, and rather easily." He got all excited, and had me sit down at the vice, and tie one. Then he took notes, and drew diagrams. I did it, but it would have been a snap if I had some of my beads for the head of the fly. When I told him that, he said, "NO BEADS! That is not fly fishing!" Sy was just fur, and feathers, no artificial materials. I did it, but it is harder to do without the bead. I prepare the feather, and do not wrap it. I can size the feather that way by fulling up the barbules, and shortening them to the length that I want behind the bead. The bead becomes the anchor point. I trim off, and now you have individual fibers you have to secure, and I can do that with head cement, and pulling them in behind the bead. Otherwise you wrap, wrap, wrap to secure them in...harder, but can be done. I leave a small, elk haired caddis trim behind the bead so they don't get pulled out as well...very short, and it makes the head look buggy. For SH's I don't want to sink very deep, I can use a plastic bead about this size "0" and in a shiny bug color head in Brown, Black, Peacock herl. And fished deeper, a tungsten black, or metal black bead for those that think shiny beads are turning off fish because lots of anglers are using shiny beads.

Thanks for the info, Sayfu. I too prefer glass beads over metal ones. When I do use meatal, they're usually black, maybe copper. Seldom use gold ones any more. I do use both synthetics and natural materials in my flies, usually in conjuction. Can't beat natural stuff for movement and "buggy-ness" though.

backcast...I use the beads for several reasons...kind of a thing I've been doing for 4-5 yrs. now, and it could change. Virtually all the flies I tie have beads. I start tying with the head! When my xtra small plastic bead goes on the hook, I am finished with the head! Benefits are....no lacquer gets in the eye, no crowding of the head, and it is easy to secure off materials at the end by by pulling a hackle stem in behind the bead, and tying off. Parachutes are quite easy...up over the top, and secured behind the bead, and trimmed off. All my dries have beads. No thread wraps show. And it allows me to tie my soft hackles much smaller because I can pull the stem behind the bead, and shorten the fibers if I want. But I use them all..bright heavy tungsten beads for deep fishing, dark for the bug head look. Not traditional, and I wish you could see one tied and finished. I do not use a whip finish as a result..the twice under Borger knot, and head cement, and it is secure.

I use all of the game birds...mallard flank on some big, long shanked, softhackles that I consider streamers..tie them with shiny bodies. The smaller, metalic dark green feathers on a mallard I use as well for dark hackle. By smaller you could dress a #10 3906 Mustad hook with the feather.Lately, I have been tying a Charlie Craven featured soft hackle using a CDC feather tied in by the tip, and wrapped bringing the fibers back. Charlie describes it well. CDC has a unique property where the fibers of CDC not only move very well, but stay as individual fibers not matting together. These fibers lay out, and back in front of a bumped up thorax long, and then a shorter soft hackle feather is placed in front of it, and behind the bead. Looks great, and I can see where it will work, just haven't fished any of them yet. Always something new to keep me tying.

I use the caddis/pupa hooks for small soft hackles because I get more gape to hold fish. On larger soft hackles I use the standard wet fly Mustad 3906, and on some bigger ones the 3xl. 9672's, and on some I want to fish right near the surface, I might use a dry fly hook. I cross over with the Japanese hooks as well. I just tied some up on an Orvis xtra wide gap dry fly hook that I want fished near the surface. In that Caddis/pupa I go to the Japanese hooks as they are stronger than the Mustads in the small sizes. Last year my duck hunting buddies gave me lots of Mallards, and I kept all the CDC feathers from them, also some CDC from Geese they gave me, and gadwalls that have some great dark barred feathers, and I got 8 roosters, and skinned all of them out. Huns I hunt a lot so have lots of huns skins. I give a lot of them away. Just gave a woman a pheasant skin that wanted to do something with the feathers.