Fishing with Floating Flies

by Samuel G. Camp

In an average season the dry fly man may confidently expect success on suitable water from about the first of May to the last days of the open time. The trout streams are now clear and at or below the normal stage of water; the temperature of the water is rising steadily; the observant fly-fisherman will note the natural ephemeridae abundant at intervals over and on the stream—and there is no sight in nature (at least from the writer's viewpoint and, I fancy, from that of all other trout fly-fishermen) more interesting or more wonderful than a good hatch of duns. With the advance of the season and the usual gradual falling of the water, conditions ever grow more and more in favor of the dry and against the wet fly.

I could easily cite numerous instances which have occurred in both my own experience and in that of other anglers which go to prove the effectiveness of the floating fly on low, clear water, late in the season, when the wet fly is usually ineffectual. Without, however, going into narrative detail, it should be sufficiently obvious that, under the conditions named, a very delicately dressed floating fly, in appearance quite similar to the natural ephemeridae common to the stream, attached to a practically invisible leader and riding down buoyantly on the surface, with wings erect, in the exact, jaunty manner of the natural dun, is far more apt to deceive the fish than two or more wet flies, shapeless and draggled, of dubious coloration, pulled across or against the current in a manner never followed by the natural insect. Wherever a fly may be floated the dry fly is distinctly the thing for late spring and summer fishing.

Much has been said and written concerning the character of the streams favorable for the employment of the dry fly—that is, as regards the natural characteristics of the water itself, whether fast or slow in current, smooth or broken, shallow or deep, and so on. The dry fly having originated upon the placid currents of the south of England rivers, it is only natural that the impression should prevail that a floating fly can be used effectively only on a slow stream. The practice and experience of American fly-casters has thoroughly proved this an erroneous theory. It may be truthfully said that the dry fly may be successfully used upon all except white water.

It is not the rate of the current which determines the suitability of the floating fly to any given stream; wherever the surface of the water is unbroken the dry fly works well, but where white water prevails, although the angler may persist in the use of the dry fly, actual dry fly fishing is impossible, the fly can only be made to float for an infinitesimal length of time, is almost immediately drowned by a wave or drawn under by a whirlpool, and the result is a hybrid sort of angling in the nature of wet fly fishing with a dry fly.

The point has been made that even under these conditions it is best to use the dry fly on the ground that, dry or wet, the floating fly is materially, in form and coloration, a better imitation of the natural fly than is the average wet fly. Under like circumstances the natural insect acts in a similar manner, that is, is drawn under the surface in broken water and carried here and there by conflicting currents. For some time it has been my custom to use dry flies for wet fly fishing, but I would emphasize the fact that fishing a drowned dry fly in white water is hardly genuine dry fly fishing and that any resultant success must be accredited to the wet fly method. Any statement to the effect that the dry fly may be used in the rapids of any trout stream where white water is the rule must be taken with a grain of salt and with due allowance for the enthusiasm of the man who makes it.

In any stream the swift runs where the water is smooth may be very effectively fished with the dry fly; taking an average of American trout streams, excepting the smaller rocky, mountain brooks (generally a succession of shallow, rough rapids with comparatively few smooth places) it may be said that a fly may be quite successfully floated over probably three-quarters of the water comprised. By smooth water I do not wish to be understood as meaning absolutely flat water—the floating fly will ride a wave or a succession of them with surprising buoyancy; but if the crests of the waves are broken into miniature "white-caps" then the fly is soon drowned. The wet fly, or wet fly methods, should be followed wherever the water is of the latter description. The writer's own custom when fishing a stream wherein smooth and white water alternate constantly is to use a single dry fly, a coachman or Wickham's fancy, casting dry or wet as the nature of the stream may seem to render expedient.

In line with a general discussion of the times and localities when and where the dry fly is indicated it should possibly be noted that dry fly casting, as the more clever method and designed particularly for the purpose of angling for educated trout, should be favored over wet fly fishing on any stream which is whipped a great deal by wet fly fishermen. That the trout of such a stream grow "gut shy" and exceedingly canny and, at best, when the stream is clear and natural insect food somewhat abundant, rise reluctantly to the wet fly, is axiomatic. In view of the fine tackle, the finesse, and the fidelity to nature afforded by the dry fly method it would seem that no angler could for a moment doubt the efficacy of the floating fly under such circumstances. On the other hand, I believe—although practical experimentation has never yet been possible—that a skilfully fished wet fly, on a stream where dry fly fishing has become the rule, might, on occasion, by the very novelty of the thing, be made to do wonders.

Finally, as regards the general question of when and where to use the dry fly, let me emphasize the fact that, for success, the sportsman must have confidence in the floater and use it constantly wherever he may consistently do so—that he must not consider his box of dry flies as merely supplementary to his familiar, old-time book of wet flies, but must give preference to the dry fly method, consider himself, in fact, a dry fly fisherman, and have recourse to the wet fly only when his common fishing sense advertises the fact that the floater is not the thing for the time being.

Sporadic experimentation with the dry fly when the wet has failed, although frequently successful in its purpose, is not a true test of the efficacy of the method when followed consistently, for the degree of true sport which the dry fly is capable of affording. Of all forms of angling, the phrase "it is not all of fishing to catch fish" is most true of fishing with the floating fly.