Two Main Types of Flies for Fly Fishing

There are thousands of patterns of flies for fly fishing. Fly patterns generally try to imitate real insects or small fish in or on top of the water. By watching or learning about the animal that the fly you are fishing is based on, you will know how to fish with your fly.

The two main types of fly patterns include dry flies and wet flies.

Dry flies sit on top of the water and are meant to imitate insects that are able to stay on top of the water due to their surface tension. When fishing with a dry fly, you will want to use floating fly line. Most dry flies are made from material meant to keep them water-resistant. The Outdoor Adventure Guide recommends giving them a quick rubdown with dry fly floatant. This will keep your fly dry and on top of the water while fishing. If your fly does become too damp to remain on the surface, false casting with it for a few minutes should be sufficient to get it dry again.

Wet flies sit either just below the surface or go deeper. Since they are meant to imitate a real insect or small fish in water, they should appear to swim, float, drift, emerge or feign injury in the water. Depending on which action you are going for, you will want fly line that floats, has sinking-tip or full-sinking line.

On calm water, you will want to present your fly wherever you can see or you think fish are. Let the fly sink to the right depth, and then begin taking the action needed for the fly to appear to have the movement of the creature it is imitating. In moving water, you will want to cost your fly upstream of where you believe fish are, so that the fly will sink to the appropriate depth and appear to be drifting in front of the fish as it goes downstream. Learning to roll cast can be especially helpful in this situation.