Although some might consider pulling wet flies as going over to flyfishing’s dark side, Craig says it’s both a fun and effective way to fish.

Whilst many flyfishers enjoy casting dry flies to rising trout, there are plenty of times throughout the fishing season when the conditions do not allow for this. The angler is required to try different techniques if they wish to be successful, and one of these techniques is pulling wet flies.

Even though pulling wet flies looks quite simple on the face of it, to be consistently successful, there is quite a bit of technique involved.

The Five Steps

I like to break pulling wets into five stages. They are the plop, drop, retrieve, hang and lift.

The plop

When your flies hit the water, they should do so with an attracting plop, rather than crashing into the water. When a fly-line alights softly and delivers the flies with an attractive plop, trout will often detect the sound and come over to investigate a potential meal. However, lines and flies that crash heavily onto the water are likely to scare the fish away.

The drop

After the flies hit the water, allow them to sink. I count them down by fives: 5 then 10 then 15 and so on. This enables the angler to find the depth the fish are holding at. Your count will be impacted by the depth of water you are fishing and, when boat fishing, the speed of drift and the sink rate of the line being used. Speaking of which, when using a sinking line, if you are catching more fish on the dropper, consider using a faster sinking line, as the dropper fly will be the deeper of the two flies in the water. If you are catching more fish on the point fly, then change lines to a slightly slower sink rate as the point fly will be higher in the water column. If you are catching evenly on both flies, you are on the correct sink rate of line and on the correct countdown for the conditions. As you flies are dropping, keep your rod tip close to the water, pointing straight down the line. When fishing from a drifting boat or in windy conditions, you may have to take up some line with a figure-eight retrieve to keep in touch with your flies as they drop.

The retrieve

Generally, I prefer a smooth, fast retrieve for trout: long smooth trips with my line hand moving beyond my back between strips. To prevent missing takes that occur between strips, I clamp the line between my index / middle fingers and thumb of my rod hand as my line hand is moving forward to make another strip.

Another useful retrieve is the roly poly. If in doubt about the speed you should retrieve at, err on the side of speed. Speed can get a trout’s interest and doesn’t give them time to inspect your fly too carefully. Every day can be different, so play about with your speed until you find the sweet spot. However, as a general rule, if in doubt, go faster.

The Hang

This is simply stopping your retrieve and allowing your flies to fall in the water column. Often fish will be following the flies without taking, and stopping your retrieve can force the issue. As with the drop, the timing of the hang is dictated by line sink rate, depth of water, and, if boating, the speed of the boat’s drift. Keeping in touch is critically important to convert takes. I place a hang marker 6m back from the tip of my fly-line to help me hang the flies the correct distance away. This is made with a bead of orange UV fly paint adhered to the line. Over time, you will find that different waters respond differently to hanging, and this will also help you determine how long to hang your flies for.

The lift

After the hang, steadily sweep the flies up in the water while looking for a following fish. This ascending action can be very attractive to a trout. If a fish is following but still doesn’t take, try rolling the flies back over it and dibble back. Sometimes it works.

Pulling conditions

The best conditions for pulling flies are generally overcast and windy. The waves mask the vibration of the fly-line hitting the water which can scare fish. And in rough conditions, pulling helps the angler keep in touch with their flies. Bright, still conditions are often better suited to slowly fishing nymphs, which minimises the number of casts made, and in turn means less disturbance on the water.

Whilst pulling flies can work at any time during the season, late autumn to early spring is very good, when fish may hit your flies not just because they think they are food, but also out of heightened territorial aggression.

Line logic

I use overweighted lines on all my rods, for example using a more aggressive line model that has a grain weight equal to a 7 weight line, on what are nominally 6 weight rods. Some lines are built true to weight and in that case, on a 6 weight rod, you should run a 7 weight labelled line. Others are built overweight, such as the Scientific Anglers Anadro taper which is built a full line size heavy. On the box it says it’s a 6 weight, but in fact it’s a 7 weight line – perfect. Many modern rods perform better when using overweighted lines. If a 6 weight rod performs better with a 7 weight line, is it really a 6 weight rod? This is a question we should be putting to rod manufacturers.

When pulling wets from the bank, I use either a floating line or an intermediate sink tip. Full sinking lines are difficult to use from the bank as they constantly sink and tangle around your feet and vegetation.

When pulling from a boat, I use a wide range of lines: hover, intermediate, DI3 and DI5 in both sweep and density compensated (DC). I use DC lines in water 2m or less in depth, and sweep lines in deeper water. Sweep lines are designed to sink belly first, causing the flies to move more up and down through the water column. This can be very effective, but the lines require 2m or more of depth to be effectively fished.

Another consideration is the speed of your drift. On windy days, move to a faster sinking line as there will be less time to get your flies to the appropriate depth.

Finally, most new fly-lines come with loops built in at the end. I tie my leader to the loop using a blood knot. This is a simple and quick connection, assisting in smooth, quick line changes.

Leaders

I only use two flies when pulling. For bank fishing, I use a 9ft 2X tapered leader, then 5ft of 2X fluorocarbon tippet. This gives me 5ft between dropper and point fly; all up a 14ft leader. The tapered leader, plus a shorter distance between flies, makes it easier to cast a tighter loop, which may be required to cast across or into the wind.

This is not an issue when boat fishing, as all your casts are downwind. In that case, I use 7ft of level fluorocarbon to the dropper, and a further 7ft to the point fly, again a total of 14ft.

I create my droppers using a three turn Surgeons Knot. Dropper length is around 15cm. Tippet rings are an option; however personally, I don’t use them as I find them fiddly, and I don’t believe they add much value.

Other tips

When bank fishing, I like to keep on the move. Typically, I’ll fan out five casts while moving down the bank. If a trout is in the area and in the mood to eat a pulled fly, it will let you know pretty quickly.

A strip-strike is the best way to hook a fish when pulling wet flies. Simply tighten up on a trout, and it should effectively set the hook itself. Lifting the rod to set the hook should only be used to take up slack line (which most often occurs when fishing fairly static flies, such as dries). Or to put it differently, if you feel the take rather than see the take, strip-strike.

FLYSTREAM FACTS – Pulling Patterns   

Point flies

My favourite flies on the point when pulling include the Magoo (both brass and orange bead), Viva Magoo, Humongous, Roy (the current pattern in my Effective Flies column), Black Mamba, Green Machine and Shrek. Incidentally, I usually prefer copper beads over tungsten beads for lake flies. Heavier tungsten beads sink too quickly for my liking, forcing the angler to fish faster than they may want to keep the fly from ending up too deep in the water column.

Dropper flies

The Blob, Tom Jones, Claret Dabbler and Barby* are just a few of my dropper favourites. I also use many of my point flies above as droppers, but tied without beads.

*This pattern will be covered in an upcoming ‘Effective Flies’ column.

FLYSTREAM FACTS – Tackle

Rods

When bank fishing, I use a 6 weight 9’6” rod, which is a good length for casting into and across the wind. When boat fishing, I use a 6 weight but in 10ft, which helps with line control, and playing fish around the boat.

Reels

Reels with quick change spools are handy, as they allow fast changing of different sink rate lines through a fishing session. Cassette reels are useful in reducing the cost of multiple spools and are worth considering.

Drogues

When pulling wets from a boat, a properly set up drogue is indispensable. Mine is adjustable, with a float at the top, and it’s only 90cm deep. Having a drogue which sits fairly shallow is very important to avoid doing damage to the lakebed and weed on shallower lakes.

For more on pulling wets, listen to Craig’s podcast episode with The Flyfisher’s Podcast here.