I started to fish “wet fly” style last fall and wished I started earlier.

It is a very graceful way to fly fish. And, since you’re working the flies downstream and walking downstream, it is a lot easier on the legs and back.

It also is very rewarding. A swinging fly, whether a streamer or a wet fly, just seems to trigger a trout to strike. You won’t mistake the take. They just crush it.

I fish two at a time, and I find that it’s a great way to try different combinations: two wets, a streamer and a wet fly, a weighted nymph and a wet fly. This technique hasn’t worked for me that well in super-shallow waters, like the Swift, but it has worked well on larger waters, like the EB and the Millers.

Writing this post makes me recall the most vicious strike last season, which occurred on the EB, as I was swinging two nymphs at the end of a drift. There’s a particular spot that always seem to host an Alpha Trout, the biggest and baddest trout in the area that gets the prime feeding lie. One time, it was a very large tiger trout on a humid August day. Another time, it was a large rainbow in very cold water in November.

On the Millers, there was a honey hole in which I caught multiple 15″+ rainbows. All ablaze with fall colors. All caught with an induced take at the end of the drift. All pounced on the fly. Made me realize more deeply that trout are predators.