Wet Flies vs. Streamers

[trent]

A question for you fly experts...

What's the difference between a wet fly and a streamer?

Once we have established a definition for each, is there a difference in how you fish each?

Personally, I would probably use the two terms interchangeably. However, poking around online it looks like that may not be a universal treatment.

Discuss...

[krebsie]

Good question Trent
I don't know what or how Webster would define this, but I think it's actually pretty simple at least in my fly box. Any fly that is designed to sink is a wet fly. The difference is that a streamer is designed to be worked by the fisherman and just by common definition is considered to be and assumed to be wet! Never herd of a dry streamer! But hey you may have just invented another type of fly!! Cool!!
Oh yea, I could be wrong, just my way of thinking!
Krebsie

[trent]

When I was poking around, I found a definition of a wet fly as being an insect pattern that was submerged or beneath the surface film whereas a streamer was defined as representing a baitfish pattern. I'm not sure either adequately encompasses the various flies that seem to be put in those categories.

It seems like there are dries, nymphs and then streamers and wet flies are mentioned in the same breath. I'm just interested in where one starts and the other ends or if like you said all streamers are wet flies, just fished differently.

traditionalflies.com/index.php?flies

Check out the various wet flies on the website above. How would you fish those flies, i.e. dead drift, strip them, swing them??? Anybody tie flies like that?

[flyfishingpastor]

Trent;

I'm HOPING all these questions are in preparation for tying some flies? I'm figuring, since you have a vise now and no doubt will fill out your tools & stuff over Christmas that my paying for flies are a thing of the past? Of course, in the long run, paying for flies MIGHT just be cheaper!

Pat

[reelteacher]

Trent,
You are full of excellent questions. I wish I was as inquisitive as you are when I started!
First, the website you posted contain elegant classic salmon flies... Very pretty yes, time consuming and costly to make...YES. We Indianan's primarily fish the bass and bluegill flies. Ugly fuzzies as they are sometimes referred to. Wet flies are imitations of submerged insects, usually in larvae, pupa or emerger phase of their life cycle. Wet flies can be dead drifted, swung on a tight line in the current, twitched up stream or a combination of all three. There is no hard and fast rule. Experimentation is the best bet. Dry Flies are the adult life forms of the wet flies. Adult insects must swim to the surface of the water and molt or shed their skin, we refer to this as a hatch, and spread their wings to prepare for flight. Adults usually survive only a short time, from a couple of days to a couple of hours as they try to find a mate and reproduce. Adult females of mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies then return to the surface of the water to lay their eggs in the water. Female Dragonflies and damselflies usually drop their eggs on aquatic vegetation, like lillypads or cattails. During these times, the insects are extremely suseptable to predation from fish.
Streamers are generally larger than wet flies and generally imitate baitfish or larger animals like crayfish, helgrammites, worms and leaches. These are usually fished with an active retrieve to give the fly movement and life. Although, sometimes dread drifting a leach or crayfish imitation is perfect. Again, there is no hard or fast rule on retrieves of one type of fly vs. another type of fly.

[trent]

Pat:

if there is no doubt in your mind that I will be filling out my collection of tools and gadgets and doodads and trinkets and thingamabobs, that must mean you've been shopping. Good for you!

If you don't mind fishing the same big and ugly fly for days on end, then your need to purchase flies may indeed be coming to an end.

Dustin:

I love the look of those classic flies. They may be time consuming and expensive, but they sure are pretty. I'd love to see what they look like in the water, although if I had some I'm not sure I would actually want to fish them. Maybe they are more durable than they look like, but my flies take a beating. Unfortunately, that beating is not the result of fish as much as I would like.

So, it sounds like "wet flies" are submerged insect patterns in a stage of life other than adult and everything else fished subsurface is a streamer??? Is that pretty close?

[flyfishingpastor]

Trent;

Never you mind about my shopping - though if you relied upon Santa, I think you're fried dude - I KNOW you haven't been that good this year. For what I've ALREADY invested in your fly fishing, I should be receiving free flies (instead of the other way round) AND you should be tying on my flies and netting the danged fish!

And, frankly, I don't know why your flies don't last much longer, they spend much more time dry than wet - in trees, bushes, logs and high grass. I keep telling you: "If you want to catch fish; the fly has to be in the water!" This younger generation just won't listen to the wisdom of their elders!

Pat
P.S. For those of you who don't know, Trent is my son-in-law, and, as much as it pains me to say it in public, my best fly fishing buddy. If you can't abuse your son-in-law, who in the heck CAN you abuse?

[tnt]

Streamers are a form of the generic term "wet fly," meaning they sink/go under water. Classic "wet flies" are usually colorful, beautiful flies. Classic atlantic salmon flies (which are pretty much works of art) fall into this category. Many wets would be characterized as attractor patterns. There are several others as well, check out this link for some good wets hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatches/category/ray-bergman-collection/
If they imitate anything, they might imitate drowned insects.
Streamers are either attractors with lots of flash and color, or they imitate something like a minnow or leach (something that swims).
Maybe this has been a help... or maybe it's made me look like a nerd

[solomogo]

I always thought of wet flies as the imitation of an insect at various stages of life, but primarily winged adults. After all, there are some adult insects that go sub-surface to lay egss before they die and some that die at the surface become submerged in rough water. My grandfather used to talk about doing the wet-fly swing with his braided silk line and bamboo rod. That was when it was more difficult to float everything.
Streamers, I thought, imitated sub-surface critters of any type (minnows, leeches, insect larvae, etc.) which is what I end up using most around here. Though, after last night, I may give strike indicators more of a try.
That's my 2¢.