The Three Types of Fishing Flies

I love to fly fish, although I do get bored duringperhaps a minnow or a swimming bug or a shrimp
the long New England winters. When I was youngor a crawfish or even a lobster. Streamers are
and without little children, I'd fly down southusually retrieved to give them life like motion
somewhere, anywhere actually, and continue toalthough often they are allowed to swing across a
fly fish. Now instead I sit around, tie a few fliescurrent without retrieval, which also results in a life
getting ready for spring, and think about fishing.like and natural motion.
There are three basic types of fishing flies.The third type of fishing fly is the nymph. A
One is a dry fly. It's a fly designed to float on topnymph resembles the immature aquatic form of
of the water and look like an airborne insect thatan insect. Many insects live most of their lives in
has alighted or fallen in the water. Dry fly fishing isthe water, flying only briefly to mate and die.
exciting: you typically cast upstream and let theNymphs are typically cast upstream and dead
fly drift as drag free and naturally as possible.drifted in the current, like a real nymph that has
When and if a fish takes it, you see it! Dry flygotten dislodged.
fishing is primarily a fresh water technique, andNot all flies neatly fit into these categories. What
the classic method of catching trout.would you call a fly rod popper, or a crab fly, or
The second type of fishing fly is the streamer. Itfly designed to match a swimming mouse? Good
resembles something swimming in the water,questions!