Which do you prefer- dry fly fishing or wet? And what flies tactics do you use? Do these tactics vary upon your destination?

Let's here some thoughtful responses.

Les

When I think of wets I am thinking of flies for which I will generally not add floatant; thus we could be talking about an unweighted emerger sitting in the film or one that sinks 2-3 inches or weighted flies which sink rather quickly. Fishing near or on the surface brings to mind my recent afdaptation to tandem fishing-that is, I will use a dry thne a trailing rig that can float or sink.

Les

I fish dries only and only in sizes 16 and down. For me it isn't a matter of snob appeal; it's just that I grew up trolling the Great Lakes for salmon and walleye and perch fishing using spreaders and that had no visual stimulation whatsoever. Now I'm obsessed with the visual part of fly fishing. I don't even use nymphs or streamers for bluegills or bass, but I do break my self-imposed size limit and use large poppers--up to a size 10.

I tie nymphs and emergers for others, especially my younger brother, who couldn't care less how he gets a fish--as long as it's fly fishing and legal. He even uses egg patterns when going for steelhead. I like to give him crap about that as I just don't think it's a very sporting way to fish for steelhead.

Just like everyone has already said on this thread, I like top water action the best. But, like CC stated, the fish have to cooperate.

Trout: When first stocked, or in high water, the trout are meat eaters on the bottom. A big beadhead bugger is what they want. But in late spring, early summer, the trout in my local streams only feed on midges in the afternoon. I've had so much fun with my 1wt and size 20 or 22 sulfur midges on a 6X.

Sunfish: That's what I do all summer until they restock the trout streams in early Oct. I have best success with beadheads fished on the bottom. Like Cliff said in his article "the big gills are on the bottom hiding in the weeds" I have found the same thing. But....... almost every twilight at a local lake, hundreds of bluegills stay on the surface eating tiny nymphs before they hatch. Good action with a sponge spider, but a fish on every cast with a non weighted size 14 Hare's Ear. That is the best action I have around here. The big gills almost pull my UL fly rod out of my hand!!

Good topic, Les! I have to say that I switch all the time when I go fishing...... just like trout when cold and sunfish when hot!!

When I bass fished I primarily used soft plastics and love to watch the line twitch and feel the bump of a take. This preference transferred to fly fishing. I prefer fishing wet flies over dry flies 9 times out of 10.
For trout I use soft hackles primarily. For bluegill and the accidental bass I fish slow sinking flies (sometimes with extra weight but mostly not).
It's a blast to see the take and I enjoy catching fish on dries but the fish don't seem to like them as much. Sometimes I crave dry fly fishing but after I catch a few on top I'll revert back to my preferences.

Great point. But if you had a choice which do you prefer?

As for me I like streamer fishing.

Les
  

The largest two bass that I've caught, 9# and 7-15# have both been on #1 Peck's Poppers. Over the years I've literally caught thousands of bass on those poppers and always start off with them in the morning. There are times I'll switch to a frog-pattern deer hair popper, and those have been effective as well. It is rare that I use dry flies for bream, 99.9% of the time I use wets such as woolly buggers, cap spiders, small clousers and a lot of trout nymphs. 

Wet!! I'm with cross creek and a few others. Soft hackles seem to be magic on tough spooky trout. It seems like on some waters if getting the correct drift is difficult during a hatch, I can get above most fish and swing a soft hackle down and lots of times get a strike.

can't add anything. Dries when the fish will take them, but need moving water as well. So mostly wets on the swing or just below the surface with a strip retrieve.