Fly Fishing Flies

Fly fishing is the sport of catching fish using fly fishing flies which are hooks tied with fur, feather and other artificial fly tying materials. Fly fishing is the art of presenting artificial fly fishing flies imitating a fly, terrestrial insect imitation to fish.

Artificial fly fishing flies are created by tying hair, fur, feathers, or other fly tying materials, both natural and synthetic, onto a hook with thread. The first fly fishing flies were tied with natural fly tying materials, but synthetic materials are now extremely popular and prevalent. The fly fishing flies are tied in sizes, colors and patterns to match local terrestrial and aquatic insects, baitfish, or other prey attractive to the target fish species.

Fly Fishing Flies

In broadest terms, fly fishing flies are categorized as either imitative or attractor. Imitative fly fishing flies resemble natural food items. Attractor fly fishing flies trigger instinctive strikes by employing a range of characteristics that do not necessarily mimic prey items. Fly fishing flies can be fished floating on the surface (dry flies), partially submerged (emergers), or below the surface (nymphs, streamers, and wet flies.) A dry fly is typically thought to represent an insect landing on, falling on (terrestrials), or emerging from, the water's surface as might a grasshopper, dragonfly, mayfly, ant, beetle, stonefly or caddis fly. Other surface flies include poppers and hair bugs that might resemble mice, frogs, etc. Sub-surface flies are designed to resemble a wide variety of prey including aquatic insect larvae, nymphs and pupae, baitfish, crayfish, leeches, worms, etc. Wet flies, also known as streamers, are generally thought to imitate minnows, leeches or scuds.

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