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Many times I here some one say why in your right mind would you fish a size 6 or a size 8 wet fly, followed by the line "Trout are going to take a fly that big". Well first off let's understand that wet flies in their hay days were sold in shops and in catalogues in size 4 - 14. It was very typical that anglers bought and fished with wet flies in size 6 & 8 as a standard size. Now when I discovered wet flies I too was fishing them in size 14 and 16 with much success. So back in February of 1998 I took Don Bastian's wet fly class in Benton, PA at the Fishing Creek Angler. This class ran from Friday night till Sunday afternoon. During this weekend Don told me this same story as well. When I herd about fishing flies this large my reply was "Horse Hockey". Don challenged me to go and try and fish with wet flies this size. So I did some research and found old catalogues like Wright and McGill and a few others that wet flies were mainly sold in size 4 - 10, yes you could find them in size 12 -14 but the staple was size 4 - 10. From February to March that year I tied up 12 dozen flies in size 6. I hit the streams that spring and landed my first Trout on a size 6 English March Brown male wet fly. I thought to myself just lucky. Well 9 Trout later was not luck. I landed Browns and Brookies ranging in size from 9 inch to 17 inches. Now that year was the last time I would ever fish a wet fly smaller than a size 10. Now to go on further I was fishing in Catskills on the Beaverkill with a size 6 wet fly called The Captain, This fly started to get little bumps that to me felt like I was snagging a shallow gravel bed, I retrieved the line in and was surprised to see a 3 inch rainbow with a size 6 hook barely wedged in his mouth. The hook point was barely touching any skin nor made any real penetration. Now I have ran into only one case since 1998 where I had to go to a size 10 while fishing a Black Prince wet fly in New Jersey on the Ken Lockwood Gorge. A size 6 wet fly was refused, a size 8 worked just a tad better and a size 10 killed them. So now a days in my fly box I carry wet flies from size 6 to size 10, nothing smaller has been fished or tied. Now in the 2009 season I will be fishing mostly wet flies in size 8. The main reason for this change is it is hard to always find duck quills that will properly size to a 6 hook. However, I never have trouble finding quills consistently in size 8. Since 1998 I have taken Trout from 3 inches to 23 inches on these large wet flies, days and evenings and of course late 10:00 t midnight hours. I have had much success and have had 20 fish evenings on a size 6 and 8 Leadwing Coachman and a Greenwell's Glory wet fly in size 8. So until the Trout tell me that they will not take wet flies in size 6 & 8, I will continue to fish them with much pleasure. I hope this helped every one out a little.

Sincerely
Andy Brasko