Sunken Dry Fly

[jfinn 0]

Got out Saturday for a little bit for trout and ended with a 15 fish day with the majority coming on a size 18 Purple Haze, but it had to be slightly drowned or they wouldn't touch it. Any ideas why the floating dry was passed but the drowned was taken a ton? Is there nymph patter or sub surface pattern that could be tied to imitate the sunken haze? I'm thinking a dry dropper combo of purple and some sort of nymph might be good to fish.

 

[FIN-ITE 34 0]

There are a bunch of Purple Haze emerger patterns. Can be tied with a partridge collar or swept back wing of dun elk hair or cdc.

[Crackaig 0]

You could try the classic Snipe and Purple.

 

Cheers,

C.

[Matt7082 0]

I love fishing Usuals. They are super quick and super easy to tie. I tie them in all different colors. They are a fantastic emerger pattern. In fact, the Usual is normally my go-to for just about all of my dry-flying. I fish them on top, and then I let them swing on the end of the drift so they go under. They also fish very well as a wet fly

[SilverCreek 0]

As said above they were hitting emergers and that is why the fly in or under the film worked and the fly ON the film did not. The rise to an emerger and to a dry fly differ from each other so study the rise form to decide what to put on.

 

http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/entomology/357564-fishing-emergers.html#post693197

 

Here is a video of rise forms. Click on the link below and it will take you there:

http://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/video-lessons/chapter-six-dry-fly-fishing/338-learn-by-watching-rises

I recommend "Fishing The Film" by Gary Borger as a comprehensive guide on how to fish emergers, dries, and spinners.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fishing-the-Film-/200574124980

Here's my copy

[Dave G. 0]

There is one spot on a particular river that always took a sunken Fluttering Caddis in a Jade body size 12 to get a nice salmon from it. Don't know why that spot, always a salmon etc. But I could count on it with regularity. That fly is downed turkey over the back and a collar of grizzly and as mentioned, a body in Jade Green Color made of floss. I stopped tying these as dries actually and put soft hackle on them now and deliberately fish them wet. The first time ever with the dry pattern was totally by accident and I was stipping in a sunken dry fly enough to lift and recast it.

 

As others are saying though, your fish are taking emergers.

[firedad 0]

Most of the time, when dry fly fishing, I will drown the fly at the end of a drift and has paid off many times. This makes the most of each drift

[wschmitt3 0]

I find that brook trout are rarely selective enough to key in on sub surface emerging insects vs. a dun, the wild brookies in the head water streams around here will taste just about any thing that comes their way above or below at least once. They often crash into each other going up to take a fly. It is possible that they were focused on insets just below the surface but it is just as likely that they would have taken almost anything with the right presentation.

 

With that said adding a dropper off of a dry fly is a technique I love to use for brookies. I fish for in some beaver ponds in the headwaters of my "home" stream it works great because there is only a very slight flow in the small beaver pond and with a couple of very small careful mends I can have a surface fly and a soft hackle available for a long time on a very long drift. Fishing the dry dropper combo dead drift with a very small twitch now and then is deadly in this kind of situation and just a straight dead drift in faster flowing water.

 

You seem to really like the purple haze for the brookies but I highly suggest small black parachutes and small black x-caddis early on in the year and small yellow and brown simulators (tied size 16-18 on 3xl) hang a small phesant tail hares ear soft hackle off and you cant help but catch fish.

[SilverCreek 0]

I find that brook trout are rarely selective enough to key in on sub surface emerging insects vs. a dun, the wild brookies in the head water streams around here will taste just about any thing that comes their way above or below at least once. They often crash into each other going up to take a fly. It is possible that they were focused on insets just below the surface but it is just as likely that they would have taken almost anything with the right presentation.

 

Selectivity is a product of the biomass of the riparian habitate. It only occurs in rivers and streams that have enough insect biomass that the fish can develop selective feeding. So for brook trout in a headwaters stream, you are correct that would indeed be a rare occurance.

 

But in limestone spring creeks and in rich tailwaters it is a common ocurrence.

 

JFinns description that the fish would take the fly when drowned but not dry indicates that in his case the fish WERE selective to flies under the surface film. He wrote, "Got out Saturday for a little bit for trout and ended with a 15 fish day with the majority coming on a size 18 Purple Haze, but it had to be slightly drowned or they wouldn't touch it."

 

See:

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=81102&p=626027

 

http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/general-discussion/334575-selectivity-why-how-do-trout-become-selective-feeders.html

 

The feeding behavior of the fish is shaped by the environment and population behavioral variations. So even when most of the fish are feeding opportunisticallty due to enviornmental factors, some fish may be feeding selectively due to micro habitat and population variation. Similarly, when most of the fish are feeding selectively, some fish may be feeding opportunistically due to micro habitat and pupulation variation. This second situation is the basis of the hatch breaker strategy of fishing, for example, a royal wulff in during a heavy PMD hatch.