Wet Fly set up

[Jackiechan]

I was wondering if anyone could describe the triple fly set up for fishing wet flies. From what I've read, the lead fly (one closest to your leader) should be the heaviest with longest length tippet, the middle fly less heavy and less tippet length and the tail fly or 3rd fly tieds to the end of the leader to react just below the surface.

Often I fish droppers using a large attractor pattern tying a hares ear, pt, brassie... a foot or so off the bend in the attractor but this sounds altogether different.

What knots should be used to tie the 2 dropper tippets off the main leader and approx. what distance should all 3 be from one another?

Thanks in advance- Jackiechan

[fessiewig]

Great question! I'd like to know as well.

[PW]

I have a DVD by Oliver Edwards about Czech nymphing that was a gift. He's a well known English tyer and fly fisherman on the other side of the pond. I know there is a section on the DVD discribing how to fish with up country spiders (English wet flies) I only looked at the Czech nymphing section so far. When I get a chance I'll check out what he says about English wet fly fishing and get back to you guys.

[flytackle]

Although there are other terms, generally the fly closest to the fisherman is called the hand fly, the middle fly is called the dropper fly and the fly at the end of the tippet, farthest from the angler, is called the point fly. Here are a couple leader recipies:

9 ft. tapered trout leaders

2X
36" - .021"
16" - .019"
12" - .017"
8" - .015"
8" - .013 *
8" - .011" *
20" - .009

5X
28" - .021"
14" - .019"
12" - .017"
10" - .015"
6" - .013"
6" - .011"
6" - .009" *
6" - .007" *
20" - .006"

The sections marked with an asterix are where the hand and dropper flies are attached. When using a standard barrel knot, leave each applicable barrel knot's heaviest tag end about 4 to 6 inches long and attach flies with prefered knot. Obviously the heavier fly attaches at the hand position, the lightest at the point. You can of course also use flies all the same size. Let me know if you want other recipes, as I also have 7.5' and 12' ones, as well as other tippet sizes.
Another thing: these gangs of flies were traditionaly cast on much slower rods than are the norm today. You will be well served to open up your loops some - the tight loops so popular among dry fly power casters have no place with gangs of wets. Generally it's a good idea to keep false casting to a minimum anyhow - keep the flies wet and in the water! I like to fish ganged wets on a Fenwick glass rod - pure pleasure! Tight lines, Alec

[Jackiechan]

Alec- thanks for the great info, however if you could direct me more in laymens terms;

1) How far apart from each fly (much distance) on a 9' leader would you place each descending tippet?
2) How long (on average) should the length of the hand fly and dropper fly tippet be?
3) What knot is used to tie the dropper tippets to the leader?

Thanks for your patience on this one.

JackieChan

[flytackle]

Hi JC - The recipies supplied are for hand-tied leaders, and do not apply to extruded (knotless) leaders.
So when using the above you would have your hand and dropper fly attached to the tag end of the barrel knot you used to attach each section that is marked with an asterix - normally you would cut this off, but in that you are using droppers, you leave it 4-6 inches long.
Therefore, for the 2X leader above the distance between hand and dropper would be about 8 inches. You can lengthen the dropper tippets if you like, as long as they are not so long that they reach each other and tangle. I guess 7.5"'s would be max here, but as I said, 4 to 6 is fine. So your questions in a nutshell:

1) each descending tippet is merely the tag end of the heavier of the two sections being joined that is left when tying a barrel knot. The distance between each is determined by the length of section dictated by the recipe. In the two I supplied they are approx. 8" and 6" apart.

2) the length of the dropper tippets can be determined by the length of the sections between them, but generally, as a rule, 4 to 6 inches is fine.

3) There is no knot used to attach the dropper tippets per se, as they are merely the tag ends of the barrel knots used to attach each section.

Is that clear? Hope I haven't been to confusing :roll: . All the best, Alec

[overmywaders]

Another means of fishing multiple wet flies that is very effective is to have the heaviest fly (often a very large wet or small streamer) at the point and light flies as droppers. This allows you to bounce the dropper fly on the surface and drives fish crazy.

If you are using knotless leaders, you may want to use a dropper loop to fasten the droppers (all flies but the point fly are technically "droppers" though, as noted, the one closest to the hand is called the "hand" fly, the next may be called the "bobber", etc.) see http://mrffs.com/screamknots.html for tying the dropper loop (mis-spelled "droper loop").

Personal opinion, I would have more than 6" between droppers. I would have at least the length of the combined droppers + 1", that way they are less likely to tangle.

Enjoy.

Best regards,
Reed
www.overmywaders.com

[PW]

overmywaders

Do you tie your droppers to the loop? Do you tie the fly in the loop or attach them with a piece of tippet?

Paul-

[fessiewig]

Flytackle,

Why wouldn't you have the droppers more evenly spaced on the leader?

[overmywaders]

PW (Paul),

In the "old days" wet flies were tied on snells(instead of eyed hooks) and there was a perfection loop at the end of the snell. The dropper loop would be large enough to pass the fly through and you would do a loop-to-loop connection. Today we can do the same thing --- use a "heavy" (2x maxima?) length of mono for your dropper strand, tie it to the fly, make a perfection loop on the other end, and do a loop to loop.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Reed
www.overmywaders.com

[overmywaders]

BTW - here is an article I wrote on fishing two flies and "bouncing" the dropper. I was using a dry as a dropper in this instance, but a wet would be traditional. see http://www.overmywaders.com/articles/whentwoisbetter.html

Best regards,
Reed
www.overmywaders.com

[PW]

AHHH! That's a great idea. Fairly easy to change flies too.

Thanks Reed!

Paul-

[Tom Jutras]

My Freind "Madabout Caddis" calls this method fishing the triple threat. He fishes a large hornberg followed by a gartside sparrow and then a brassie to finish off the rig.