The Beginner’s Guide to Fly Fishing Flies
Walk into a fly shop and you will likely see a vast array of bins, crates, and boxes full of tiny flies, many of which have goofy sounding names. What’s the difference between them all?
The realm of flies can be complex and overwhelming. Here’s a guide that will simplify what flies are and the types of flies you should seek out when beginning your fly fishing adventure. You’ll hear about dry flies, nymphs, and streamers. In general, flies either float, sink, or swim and before you know it, you’ll have boxes full of each.
Key Points for Fly Fishing Flies
Flies are lightweight lures mimicking prey that are casted with a fly rod. Flies either float, sink, or swim. Dry flies and terrestrials float on top of the surface. Nymphs and wet flies sink down into the water column. Streamers swim throughout the water, mimicking injured baitfish/minnows/crustaceans.
What are Flies?
Flies are any lightweight lure that are meant to imitate insects, baitfish, or any prey that is consumed by fish. So lightweight in fact that they cannot be casted with a traditional rod and reel.
Purists would say that “fly” fishing is technically using the types of lures that only mimic the insects that are naturally found in the body of water you’re fishing. However, that definition has expanded over recent years into a more diverse collection of baitfish, crustaceans, and even patterns that look like old-school casting spoons and Rapalas. In the modern era, if it can be casted with a fly rod, it’s a fly. After a day of getting your rod bent, you probably won’t care about the argument.
To understand what these flies imitate, it’s important to have a baseline understanding of the life cycles of the fly. Check to this article on the Basics of Fly Life Cycles
Types of Flies
Broadly speaking, there are flies that float, flies that sink, and flies that swim. Within these broad categories, flies can be broken down into 4 broad categories: Dry Flies, Nymphs/Wet Flies, Streamers, and Terrestrials. Each have their own different characteristics and uses. Each type of fly can be used depending on the species of fish, time of year, and also how you like to fish.
Flies that Float
Dry Flies
Dry flies are meant to float on top of the water and mimic the bugs you see flying in the air. These types of flies are typically made of very buoyant, bushy materials that allow them to stay on the surface of the water. These are the types of patterns that imitate the adult form of the insect.
When fishing a dry fly, a natural “dead drift” presentation is vital to make the fly look natural. This means that the fly is floating without being pulled by your fly line or leader in different currents. The fly should match the speed of the current that it floats in.
Dry fly fishing can be one of the most exciting ways to fish, the sight of a fish sipping your fly off the top of the water is genuinely addicting.
Terrestrials
Terrestrials are essentially anything that lives on the banks of the water. Grasshoppers, ants, beetles, cicadas, even frogs can fall into this category. Similar to dry flies, terrestrials float along the water mimicking insects/animals that get blown into the water or fall from their typical haunches.
Terrestrials are another great way to fish, the visual of fish feeding on top water will be ingrained in your memory forever and will keep you coming out for more.
Flies that Sink
Nymphs
Simply put, nymphs sink towards the bottom of the water column. They mimic the nymph/larval stage of insects that live along the bottom of a stream or river. Insects spend the majority of their lives in this nymphal stage, swimming under rocks, in aquatic vegetation, or around any structure found in a body of water. When you are nymph fishing, you’re essentially imitating bugs that get dislodged from their dwellings and swept by the current, bouncing along the bottom of the stream/river.
Nymphs are typically made of less buoyant materials and often have a beadhead to get the fly down in the water column. Nymphs are typically fished either with a tight-line method, or under an indicator. Similar to dry flies, eliminating drag from your presentation is very important to get the fist to bite.
Trout feed heavily on nymphs, some say that 70% more of a trout’s diet is composed of nymphs. Nymph fishing is a highly effective method and know that when you are nymphing, you’re always in the game to catch a fish.
Wet Flies
Wet flies also sink, but generally just below the water surface. They typically imitate the emerging stage of aquatic insects. As the bugs transition from their nymph/larval stage, they’ll swim up the water column towards the surface to emerge into wing adults. They are extremely vulnerable during this stage, and fish will take advantage of an easy meal.
Wet flies typically look like nymphs with the addition of a soft hackle, meant to appear as emerging wings. Its common to “swing” wet flies, imitating the insect as it approaches the surface of the water.
Flies that Swim
Streamers
Streamers imitate anything that can swim in the water: baitfish, crayfish, minnows, etc. They are subsurface flies that are typically fished with some sort of stripping retrieve, often mimicking injured prey. Streamers are most like traditional fishing lures in the sense that they are casted and retrieved back to you, not necessarily dead-drifted like nymphs or dry flies.
Streamers are made of a wide variety of materials, ranging from natural materials to modern area synthetics.
Conclusion
The world of flies is complex. No matter what type of fly you’re fishing, they’re all meant to do the same thing: make the fish eat it. The nuances of when, how, and where you fish these flies is yet another complex venture and with this guide you’ll begin to understand the world of fly selection.
