Fly orientation.

[tippet]

How important is it that a fly move thru the water column in a specific orientation? In other words some flies "look" (and are tied) as though they should move with the point of the hook facing down while other just the opposite.

 

[HuronRiverDan]

What you see there is a style of fly, hooks riding up are a good choice if you have a lot of rubble on the bottom; saves a lot of snagging. Now if you fly is running a little off bottom you don't have to worry about snagging as much.

As far as real insects, I believe if they get washed off their holding area they will tumble in most cases. There are some nymphs that are very good swimmers and they will swim about in the bottom rubble.

Dan

 

[Pittflyguy]

I would echo Dan's sentiments. The fly should be tied in the manner in which you want it to "swim". For example, a Clouser is tied to ride hook point up therefore if you tied it olive over white, you would want the white to be on the weighted side of the hook to imitate how a bait fish would swim.

Conversely, a wooly bugger doesn't necessarily have a "side" since it pretty much looks the same. I tend to use dumbell eyes rather than cone heads or just lead on my buggers because I like them to ride hook point up. For non-weighted flies you can also achieve the same thing with a "wing" to flip the fly like many bonefish patterns are tied.

At the end of the day, much of it depends on how you want the presentation to look and in what conditions you are making the presentation.