Thanks, I will ask my son when he stops by to photograph a few flies that you may find interesting and have been very productive.
   I keep log books and I was just looking at the notes from the day 10/11/06 when my wife and I fished with him on an extremely bad weather day.  It was unusually cold and the temp dropped 30deg over night and up in Michigan snow fell early.
   I was afraid we would be lucky to catch a single fish.
Davy Wotton set us up with 6x tippet, a subtle yarn, indicator and a single, scud or chironomid.  We were in the Trophy zone by a dam.
   Well it was windy, dreary and cold.  However, my wife and I hooked and mostly landed all of 49 trout!  We missed a few takes and had a dozen ldrs.  Now, this was on a bad day!
  I ended up buying two 11 ft rods from Davy and have been happily wet fly fishing and Polish nymphing with that rod since then.
  My favorite wet fly is one of Davy's muddler daddy s as a top dropper.  My old eyesight is not what it was and that fly helps me to see and it is a killer on the surface, deaddrifting or bulging.  Often, on my home water when the fishing is hot, I can catch two trout at once.  Often, a bow will take a fly and then a second bow will become excited and hook itself on another fly in the team.  I have concluded that this double attack happens with other 2 or 3 fly rigs BUT most people tie a dropper to the hook of a fly.  This lazy connection does not allow a second fish to be hooked.
  With a 4 or 6 inch dropper, fish can and will take another fly.
I learned from Davy to set my drag extremely light.  If you dont you are likely to have a big fish snap your tippet on the take.  Before, I learned to trust a light drag setting and learning to palm the reel if needed, I had trout snap 4x tippet on a take, and these were only 15 inch trout, or less.
  One day, I hope to fish with Davy again and learn more.  If he comes up to Mich, I hope to take him to catch big browns on mouse flies on moonless nights or my favorite, Atlantic salmon in the rapids of the St Mary's river!  Those salmon and steelhead there will have you into the backing on the first run and jump spectacularly.BTW, I just returned from steelheading up in the St Mary's.  It was spectacular sport and I was lucky and had a great guide John Guliani. You can break an ankle or leg chasing steelhead on that rocky and swift riffle.  I wish I was twenty years old again and could leap from rock to rock.  If you go, use felt soles and bring a wading staff.  Step on flat rocks only.  The round ones will roll.
 and dont wade deep.  The water is always vodka clear and you must not let your shadow fall over a pool or you wont catch anything..  We hid behind large rocks and I believe that helped.  An 8 wt rod, floating line in white and an excellent reel is the ticket.  I used a Ross and it performed wonderfully.

AusableTrophyHunter,

Do you catch those Atlantics there by swinging flies? I have always wanted to go there and try it. It seems like you have a lot of experience there. Have you done any summer run steelhead fishing on the south side of the lake in the St. Joes or Trail Creek? I have heard some wild stories about those two streams.

   Aaron, I have not fished Skamania in southern lake Mich.  I much prefer the aesthetics of cold water, blue ribbon rivers. 
   As for the Atlantics of St Mary, they are caught in a wide variety of ways.  There are people trolling with downriggers, fisherman casting spoons from shore, fly fisherman using nymphs, salmon flies and my favorite method, casting streamers with a floating line from a boat.
   You watch for sea gulls that dive on emerald shiners that are balled up by speeding,attacking pods of salmon.  Then I present a zonker streamer with an olive rabbit back, white and silver body.  A salmon will hit it, stun it and then I set the hook.  As Davy would say..."God save the queen" and set the hook hard!
  The salmon wiil be seen breaking the surface and the bait fish make the water look like a little whirlpool.  Birds dive and feed and the world is good.  The water is extremely clear and always cold, so the salmon are near the surface.
  Overcast skies and a rising barometer mean fast action.  The opposite conditions are not so good.
  Other fly fisherman, present tiny nymphs to sighted salmon near the power plant on the American side.  I have done that and caught several salmon that way but I prefer casting streamers.
   Now, the riffles are to me, very rocky and tricky to wade but the fish are prolific.  Use a wading staff and pay attention.  This past week, I had to chase two large steelhead down two pools to land them.  I had to be extremely cautious in pursuit.  I was told that I would have been better off with felt soles instead of the spiked soles I had.  At any rate, step on the flat stones and never the round bowling ball sized rocks.  I love big trout!
  I will be returning in June for Atlantic salmon or as Davy tells me, landlocked salmon.  All I know is they are very large, fast and they jump.

That is definately good advise Au, watching the gulls.  That is how we fished for white bass on Lake Erie.  The bass would push the baitfish to the surface and the gulls would feast on them.

You are most welcome, you will enjoy learning and catching fish the Welsh way.

If you need the flies l supply those also.

Davy

  It has been too hot for good fishing during normal hours.  I did have a funny experience two days in a row last weekend.  I was wet fly fishing and I  had just the leader in the water while I vacilatted about changing the top dropper and what to use etc.  A rainbow rose to the middle dropper inches from my hand.  I set the hook and the fish was on for a few seconds!  This happened twice.  Apparently, the trout could not stand watching a fly dangling in the same spot and were unafraid of my waders etc.
   So, there you go.  A difficult day with warm temps, no clouds and fine tippets, yet the ridiculous occurs!  I suppose I should just stand in a river with a foot of tippet and jiggle a fly on the surface and wait for the trout!  Maybe I should add a glove in case it is a large trout.  I actually laughed aloud at the absurdity.
  Right now, the best action is after midnight fishing the Hex hatch.  I am ambivalent about the Hex hatch.  If you are at the right place at the right time, you can catch a trophy on a dry fly at a rod's length distance and the fight is hand to hand combat.  On the other hand, you can wait all night for a spinner fall that doesnt occur.  Or have ONE cast and one cast only to a big trout and blow it. 

Hi this is my first post! I've been salmon fishing here in the NW with gear, and have only been fly fishing for trout since the spring, but I'm totally hooked. After a FFF casting series and some unsuccessful trips without a clue about actually fishing with flies, I did some research on different methods. While I do practice with nymphs and dries,  I'm fairly focused on wet fly fishing because I like the history and the tying of these flies. 

Anyway, I bought Wet Fly Ways, then ordered up 20 flies from Davy (thanks DW!! They are awesome!).  I use the DW tied flies sparingly (I don't want to lose them!!) along with some of my own ties.  Usually Invicta or Muddler Daddy as top or middle dropper, then my own hare's ear wet, wet renegade or a spider of some sort.  I'm amazed that it totally works and that the fish are taking Davy's flies (no surprises there!) and even my own (especially the renegade!)

I have encountered 2 setbacks (I'm sure there are more, but I just don't know about them yet):

1.  my stream regs say two flies only and no split shot, so I can't get that third dropper to act as the anchor.  Any ideas for getting around the 2 fly/no split shot rule? My setup is this: 1 fly tied to the end, and 1 dropper that I work in the surface--no 'middle' dropper.  How much better would my fishing be if I was able to rig an anchor properly.  And continue to practice, of course...

2.  I'm only 5'0", I think I need more reach and control, so now I'm saving up for a 10 or 11 ft rod.  If I'm wading, man, my 9'0" rod feels pretty inadequate.  Granted, I've only ever fished a 9' rod, so I guess what I don't know isn't hurting me.  But I can only imagine what a longer rod would do for my fishing. The TFO 10' is a great price and a great rod.  Given my short height, would I be better off saving a bit longer for the 11' streamflex?

Thanks guys.  I'm a girl.  But no special girl treatment...I hate that.  ;-)