Home British & World English dry fly

Definition of dry fly in English:

dry fly

(also dry-fly)

noun

  • An artificial fishing fly which is made to float lightly on the water.

    as modifier ‘dry-fly fishing’
    • ‘The dry fly acts as a float would in coarse fishing and clearly shows a take as it is gets pulled under.’
    • ‘For most of my river fishing I use a rod with a floating line and a nine foot leader together with a selection of artificial dry flies that have barbless hooks.’
    • ‘It is funny how fishing dry flies can make people strike at every sign of movement around the fly; I am hardly one to criticise this, for I too am rather quick on the strike.’
    • ‘This second edition covers all aspects of fly fishing from tiny dry flies for brown trout to those big flies used for stripers and sailfish.’
    • ‘River trouting with a dry fly is all about slowly making one's way upstream, often creeping and crawling into position.’
    • ‘The reason is that it is demonstrably better than monofilament when used with small nymphs and dry flies because it is virtually invisible in water.’
    • ‘Several anglers reported catching fish on dry flies.’
    • ‘Although it is unlikely that the dry fly will be prominent until later in the season, it can do no harm to get into the habit of tying a few early so that your fly box is ready when the trout start moving on the surface.’
    • ‘As more rose it became time to try a small dry fly.’
    • ‘I have taken a lot of grayling in winter on a dry fly.’
    • ‘This dry fly can be deadly during the early part of the season, particularly in late May when there is a hatch of mayflies.’
    • ‘In brighter or calmer conditions, smaller flies are used, or dry flies if fish are showing.’
    • ‘There are generally three different categories of flies in fly fishing - nymphs, dry flies and streamers.’
    • ‘On the Surrey-Sussex borders salmon are fairly regularly caught on dry flies, particularly sedges.’
    • ‘It even pays to try dry flies on occasion, especially if you're river fishing.’
    • ‘But make sure you have some dry flies and nymphs in your fly box so you can cover all possibilities.’
    • ‘It would be foolish to neglect a selection of dry flies in the warmer months as these too can be very productive.’
    • ‘He then talked about his salmon and how they had at times been taken on dry flies in warmer weather.’
    • ‘Taking an aggressive rainbow on a dry fly is akin to pulling the sword from the stone or returning the ring to the mountain - for many, a dream that has its best chance of becoming reality during the very weeks ahead.’
    • ‘Stocked annually by the local council, the residents of this remarkable little stream soon become wild, so fishing for them is best approached at dusk and with a tiny dry fly on a fine leader.’

verb

[no object]

  • Fish using a dry fly.