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3. Tiemco vs. Mustad, Page 2

When you guys are fishing "wet flies" are you fishing it with that English rig of like 5 flies where you jerk it? I've never done that and honestly have never really had any interest. I love fishing dries so much I just don't think I could ever find interest in using wet flies. I think I accomplish the same tactic by soaking a sparkle dun and letting it float below the film. But maybe not. Why do you like wet flies? Just fun to tie?

WestCO,
I am a lover/practitioner of the wingless wet fly. I fish wets as single flies, mostly, however I often use a two or three fly rig for certain conditions.

Wet flies such as these can be fished downstream , across, or upstream. They can be fished in the film, just under, mid column, deep, or from bottom to top. Versatility is their middle name, and they work, often times, when NOTHING else will.

North Country wets or soft-hackles as we call them ala Sylvester Nemes were/are actually designed for upstream fishing. In fact any Yorkshire-man would probably frown upon using them downstream. Here in the States, we fish them how they work and do not omit or discount other methods, including downstream.

Fishing them in upstream or up and across can be every bit as exciting as dry fly fishing as we know it. To ignore them is a big mistake I feel many fly fisherman make. Another nice thing is they can be taken as just about any aquatic insect in various stages. Just my opinion.

Mark

They can be effective on species other than trout as well. I fished a #12 Grizzly King - a particualry colorful wet fly, which I've also tied as a dry fly and streamer - in the San Marcos River in TX and got some nice redbreast sunfish on it. Those sunnies became my "trout" down there - colorful, living in swifter waters, and hitting dries (and wets) with abandon!

Jonathon

P.S. They would probably also be deadly on sunfish in these parts as well. I'll have to do some field research in this regard over the next couple of months...

I may have to give it a go. I've been tying no-hackle duck wing Green Drakes lately but I've yet to fish them. I will have to wait until next July. Maybe I'll start trying out some soft hackle patterns if you really enjoy it. Are you really active on the retrieve with them? More or less than a streamer retrieve?

Hope I'm not duplicating much, but I use to sell Mustad's years ago, and remember when the Japanese entered the hook market. A central marketing approach they used was to create their dryfly hooks with a slightly longer shank then the standard Mustad 98040. This gained favor with fly tiers even though it threw off hook sizing. The new Mustad's, identified as Mustad "Supreme" hooks are sharper, and created to compete with the Japanese hooks. I still have lots of the older Mustads, and carry, and have a bigger, metal file at my tying desk, that takes off metal with a stroke of the file that I much prefer over the smaller, diamond type tools. Stroke, stroke, and I have a needle point on these older hooks. Where I make the distinction in the two hook makers is the smaller hooks like the caddis/pupa hooks I use a lot. If I want to tie on a short shank #18 lets say, to create a size #20-22 fly with a bigger hook gape, I go to the Tiemco's, or Dai-Reichi (sp?) hooks because their hooks are stronger in the small sizes.