Dry Fly

A dry fly is a general term used to describe a type of artificial fly representative of insects in their mature or adult life stage. When an insect is completely hatched to its adult form, they can be commonly found resting on the water's surface before taking flight and eventually mating or crawling to the safety and shelter of the riverbank. During this resting or migration period, hungry and opportunistic trout actively rise to the water's surface to feed on these hatched insects.

Proportionally, an insect's adult life is generally much shorter than its larval or nymph stage. Because of this, trout must catch these insects during the relatively brief window of their emergence from the nymphal shuck, as the fly rests on the surface film, or as the fly makes its way to shore. This is the origin of fly fishing's common concept of "fishing a hatch."

Dry flies are fished on the surface of the water or just beneath the surface film. An effective dry fly presentation requires the fly to remain dry or not waterlogged, giving the category of fly its name. An important aspect of dry fly design is its ability to shed water during false casting, its ability to ride high on the surface film, and its ability to be seen in many different kinds of water. Unlike nymphs, extra weight is not used in dry flies, as they must remain as buoyant as possible in a range of water conditions.

Common fly tying materials incorporated in dry flies are natural and synthetic dubbing with the ability to shed or repel water. Stiff dry fly hackle fibers and other feathers with good structural integrity allow a fly to float higher in the water and retain significantly less water that the webby fibers commonly put to use in nymph fly patterns. Water repellant synthetic materials have become quite popular in recent years because of their light weight and great ability to shed moisture.

The size and proportion of a dry fly is also extremely important, especially if the fly is offered in still or very clear water. A fly must look like the real thing, and this is fact contributes greatly to the proliferation of modern fly designs and uses of material in fly tying and construction.

The classic icon of fly fishing and probably the most easily recognized type of dry fly is the mayfly dun, with its highly visible upright wing, tapered body, and long set of three tails. Caddisflies, stoneflies, damselflies, midges, and terrestrials can also be tied and fished as dry flies and each insect type has its own set of design characteristics, common materials, and style of presentation.