Wingless Wets

In 1972, after return from a stint in the U.S. Army, I went to a little tackle store in Syracuse, NY that sold fly-fishing and tying supplies. Little did I know that visit would, essentially, change my entire outlook about fly-fishing. My concentration had always been on dry flies and the upstream, dead drift dogma, but that suddenly changed.

On a shelf in the shop was a little book that was propped open. It was Leisenring and Hidy's The Art of Tying The Wet-Fly and Fishing The Flymph. It was reasonably priced, so, I bought it. Inside, I found a treasure of patterns and some fishing instructions and I suddenly switched gears and began fishing these great little flies.

In years to come my education in fly-fishing increased, and the more I learned, the more I realized that these flies were, in essence, the epitome of fly-fishing. My artistic training and somewhat frugal nature told me these flies are simple, efficient, and fishable. I was catching fish regularly using them, plus they were working better than any dry fly I had used to that point. After reading Nemes' books, I also learned they were historically significant.

I was, and am happy to be considered, a soft-hackled fly addict. To this day, while I have improved greatly as a dry fly fisherman and fish dry flies, I still rely upon the wingless wets as my flies of choice. I also recognize that more and more fly fishermen are coming around to the same conclusion.

One really nice thing I find about these flies is they can and do represent many insect forms like caddis as adults-larva and pupa, mayfly nymphs, hatching sub-imagoes, and mayfly adults. I have also come to rely on this fly form to help me reproduce flies which I could not find adequate imitations for. Some of these will appear in my selection. The fly patterns I've chosen are somewhat of a cross-section of types. There are many, many great soft-hackle patterns and the list grows larger everyday. For someone just beginning, I think the following patterns would be a good starting point.

There are a couple points I feel I need to touch upon regarding these flies. First, traditional soft-hackles were tied quite sparse. The reason for this being that many of these patterns were fished upstream like a dry fly. I feel this links them to the early dry fly development in England. Next, in my opinion, Leisenring was the "Gordon" of the wet-fly, here in America. Leisenring's flies, dubbed "Flymphs" by his student and friend Vern "Pete" Hidy, were more adapted to American water. The hackling is somewhat heavier than the soft-hackles, however Leisenring's flies also incorporated the fine blending of feather, thread and dubbing to create overall impressionistic representations of natural insects which makes them very effective. This is especially true of the spun, dubbed bodies which are a bit fuller than soft-hackles. The flymphs were originally designed to fish from the bottom to the surface like an emerging fly.

All these flies use soft-hackles from different birds. Leisenring also used hen for the hackle. This to me is the key factor of these wingless wets. The soft hackle encourages movement in the fly, even when fished as a dry. Leisenring, however, often tied his flies with varying stiffness of the hackles. The Bachelor of The Braodheads, as he was called, used stiffer hackles for faster water. I should also mention that, traditionally, soft-hackles were tied with slightly oversized hackles. This often, coupled with their sparse hackling, gives them a rather gawky looking appearance. This does not deter from their fish catching power. Leisenring's flymphs were tied with the hackle of a more traditional wet-fly length.

Another point worth mentioning is the usage of hooks. Wingless wets can and are tied on all manor of hooks from those used for emergers to standard wet fly hooks. Also, hook weight can be varied. I find, like a lot of other fly anglers, that these flies can be applied on standard dry fly hooks for lighter applications, like fishing them as dries or on a greased leader just under the surface.

Many of the traditional soft-hackles were made from Pearsall's silks of England. They are still available today. Many modern dressers of the soft-hackles use nylon flosses and threads. I find these a good substitute. The problem with flosses, however, is they fray very easily and they sometime slip down the shank. To prevent this from happening, I, like many other tiers, rib the bodies with fine gold wire.

For creating my own soft-hackle and flymph patterns, I try to combine materials that give an overall representation of the fly I'm trying to imitate. This is very much in keeping with Leisenring's idea of using materials in a melding fashion. I also believe that adding tinsels or light reflective materials can improve the fly's effectiveness to some degree.

I feel this selection with tying instructions would start any would-be wingless wet-fly fisherman on the road to success. If I've peaked your interest and you would like to find more patterns to tie and try, I suggest an online search for Soft-Hackles, Flymphs, North Country Spiders or Flies. It's amazing how much information is out there.

The Black Gnat
	Hook: standard wet-fly 12-18 Thread: Red or Claret Hackle: Iridescent Starling Body: two or three herls taken from the dark, black-brown V-shaped section on the top of a turkey tail. Rib: (optional) Fine green wire. Note: Leisenring's original pattern did not include the ribbing. I added this myself to strengthen the body.
This is one of, in my opinion, Leisenring's most effective flies. I always carry some with me, and before leaving the water, always give it a shot. It's paid off many times.

Leisenring Spider
	Hook: standard wet-fly 12-16 Thread: Primrose Yellow (Light Yellow) Hackle: Brown Partridge Body: Hare's Ear Dubbing Rib: Fine Gold Wire
This pattern came from Vern Hidy and is a very effective flymph tied much like Leisenring would have done. It possesses that buggy, natural look that the fish like.

Partridge and Orange
	Hook: standard wet-fly 12 down Thread: Pearsall's Gossamer in orange (Orange Uni-Thread works as well) Hackle: Gray or Brown Partridge Body: Pearsall's Marabou Floss in Orange (Orange Uni-Floss) Thorax: (optional) Hare's Ear Dubbing Rib: Fine Gold Wire
This is probably the most widely known and used soft hackle. I included it to show how the traditional soft hackles are tied with larger hackle. I find it effective everywhere I fish tied in one size or another. It should be included in every beginning soft-hackle collection, not only because it's a classic pattern, but because it catches trout

Light Snipe and Yellow
	Hook: standard wet-fly 12-20 Thread: Yellow Hackle: Light Snipe from the under covert Body: Yellow button hole twist (or yellow floss) Rib: Fine Gold Wire NOTE: Medium light gray starling or soft hen can be used as a substitute for the snipe hackle.
This is a traditional soft-hackle and is usually tied very sparse with longer hackle. Leisenring was fond of botton-hole-twist. It is silk thread that was used to sew around the outside of buttonholes. It is quite difficult to find, nowadays, but reasonable substitutes can be found. I often use regular embroidery floss (cotton) or silk embroidery flosses as a substitute.

Little Olive Dun
	Hook: standard wet-fly 14-20 Thread: Gray Hackle: Gray Snipe, Starling, or hen Body: Olive embroidery floss to match the natural Thorax: Gray dubbing
This is my own pattern and it resembles many of the traditional soft-hackles in that it has a little thorax. Many of these flies had a dubbed thorax to hold the hackle fibers out. I believe this helped when fishing the fly as a dry fly, but it does add some realism to the fly as well.

Lil' Dorothy
	Hook: standard wet-fly 14-16 Thread: Yellow Hackle: Pale Ginger Hen Body: Cotton embroidery floss in a pale orange color, #722, one strand from a three strand twist Thorax: Light Cahill Hareline dubbing, tied fuzzy
This is another of my own patterns and is tied in a style that combines the traditional soft-hackle with flymph attributes. I tied it to represent Ephemerella dorothea that hatches on my home river at the end of May and has a distinctive orange cast to the cream colored body. Again, the combination of the cream thorax and pale orange abdomen work to create the correct appearance. I know it works when the dorotheas are hatching., and I've fished it at other times in other places, and this fly has taken trout. I also know it works well for Sulphurs that have a distinct orange cast, too.