If I Could Only Carry A Dozen Fly Patterns

Well, I suppose it is time to produce a “If I Could Only Carry One Dozen Fly Patterns For Trout, What would They Be?” list. To be truthful, just the thought of being limited to a dozen fly patterns gives me the willies and makes me feel under gunned. I seldom carry less than three dozen of any given pattern that I have confidence in and I have confidence in several hundred patterns. Which is why if you see me on the stream in my vest, you would assume I was on my way upstream to a picnic for 20 people and carrying all the food and beverages for the event. The small chest packs that are the current rage among fly anglers are not for me. They don’t hold enough flies. I had one once that was of a size that I figured was a good compromise between my need to carry all my flies and the practical upside of not having to lug all that excess weight around. It was big. When I was wearing it, I looked like Myron Floren with his accordion strapped on. And I had it so crammed with fly boxes that I was forced to sit down on the stream bank and really yank on the zippers to get any of the compartments open. So, other than for vacations where I would be doing a limited amount of fishing, I have set the pack aside and returned to wearing my vest which has more pockets than the average Super 8 motel has rooms. My shoulders sag, but at least I don’t feel naked and unprepared.

But now its time to get over it. After all, what is fear of the unknown but something to be squarely confronted and overcome? That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way.. I really don’t know. If something really scares me, I tend to go fishing so I don’t have to think about it.

But I think I can do this, even without drinking or taking a tranquilizer. I know I can. All I have to do is see it as an exercise in “what if”. I mean, I’m never really going to be limited to only carrying a dozen fly patterns, right? Right? Don’t answer that if you’re not going to tell me what I want to hear. Anyway, let’s take a step out in faith and explore this really, really scary idea…

If I could only carry one dozen different fly patterns for trout anywhere at any time, here is what they would be (in no real order of preference or importance):

1) Hare’s Ear Parachute in sizes #12-#18 - This simple combination of the Adams hackle mix with a hare’s ear body and poly or calf tail post has become my most reliable searching dry fly when the fish are mostly attuned to various caddis and smaller mayflies in the brown to gray color range. I’m never with less than 100 or so of them in my boxes

2) Whitlock Fox Squirrel Nymph in sizes #8-#16 – The Whitlock nymph, with or without a bead (I like copper best) is perhaps the most versatile nymph of them all. In larger sizes, it can pass for a stonefly nymph and the smaller ones are a pretty good generic imitation of a caddis larvae or even, once the fly gets ragged enough, a pupa. Its amber abdomen shows up well in moderately off-color water, making it a fine high water fly.

3) #18 Blue Quill with a body of brownish/gray poly or fur - While not precisely imitating either, this fly is close enough to be effective when fishing hatches of the early Baetis or Blue Wing Olive mayflies as well as for what is perhaps the most under appreciated hatch on Eastern waters, the Blue Quill or Paraleptophlebia mayflies of April and early May. There are better individual imitations of both insects, but remember I’m only allowed to carry a dozen patterns in total. This one does a good job of bridging the gap between these two very important hatches.

4) Pheasant Tail Nymph in sizes #12-#22 - My pheasant tail has the traditional abdomen of ringneck tail fibers ribbed with copper wire, but has a thorax of medium hare’s ear fur rather than the peacock herl called for in the original pattern. I tie these in a variety of ways. Some with beads (again, mostly copper), some with Krystal Flash wingcases and some (especially the smaller ones) on curved scud hooks like the Tiemco 2487. Like the Whitlock nymph above, the pheasant tail is a generic, buggy looking fly that is vary reliable for prospecting any piece of water that looks like a good place to try a nymph.

5) Grizzly Wulff in sizes #10-#18 - This yellow-bodied, high-riding dry fly with the upright deer hair wing and the brown/grizzly hackle combination has been a very effective fly for me both on small freestones back home in Pennsylvania and on the Driftless spring creeks of Wisconsin and Iowa. In a pinch, it can serve as a reasonably good sulfur imitation in size #16. And there is something about the yellow body that seems to pull trout to it that might let another fly float on by. But there’s a catch… I don’t think you can use just any yellow for the body, especially not that bright school bus yellow that is so ubiquitous in so many dubbing assortments. You want a yellow that looks a little beat up and dull and is one door down towards tan from bright yellow. The right stuff isn’t always easy to find. I’m lucky to have a several lifetime supply that I obtained when I bought a package of poorly dyed yellow zonker strips. Will I send you some? Maybe.. I might be willing to swap some of it for a new rod or an all expenses paid trip to one of the destinations on my Bucket List.

6) Copper John Nymph With Dark Green Wire Body on 1XL hooks in sizes #14-#18 - Not olive or chartreuse, dark green. No fancy epoxy wingcase either. Just pearl Krystal Flash gooped into place with a drop of acrylic nail polish. And no, I don’t know why it works so well. If I did, I’d be a trout and I just don’t think its worth that happening to me just to find out..

7) OK. You knew it was coming… All Black Wooly Bugger in sizes #6-#12 (3XL hook). While a lot of the old sayings used to convey fly fishing wisdom are just so much nonsense; in this case, the old saw that “there is no wrong way to fish a wooly bugger” is right on the money. Strip retrieve it, dead drift it, walk it past cover on a tight line while holding the rod tip high, swing it through the pocket water and let it rise as the line tightens. They all work reliably and catch fish. The combination of black saddle hackle and pulsing black marabou tail makes the Bugger look truly alive and irresistible to trout.

8) Deer Hair Delta Caddis in sizes #14-#18 – This fly is a hybrid of the simple downwing deerhair caddis and the hackle tip-winged Delta Wing Caddis that first became popular when it appeared in Eric Leiser and Larry Solomon’s groundbreaking 1970’s book, “The Caddis And The Angler”. My Delta Wing Caddis is simply a deerhair caddis with the wing material split into two equal portions and then anchored at a 45 degree angle on either side of the shank with figure 8 wraps. I then tie in a hackle feather just ahead of the base of the wings and proceed to dub the body the rest of the way to the eye. Then I wrap the hackle forward, tie it off, and finish the head and then clip the hackle flush on the bottom so the fly floats low in the water. This is an extremely versatile and effective fly that floats like a cork in broken water, but lays flat and flush on the slower moving surface of the pools. The best colors are a hare’s ear body with brown or cree hackle and a tan body with a dark ginger hackle. A very dark brown to almost black bodied version with a dark dun hackle is also good, especially during the annual Grannom hatches. I’m never without at least 100 of these either…

9) Generic Glop Of Fur Muskrat Nymph in sizes #10-#20 - This fly is exactly what it sounds like, simply a bunch of muskrat fur with the guard hairs left intact dubbed onto a standard length, 1XL or scud hook and sort of tapered from front to rear. Within reason, the sloppier the tie, the better the results. This is one of those flies that becomes more effective as it descends into ratty lookingness (a new word I just invented) from use. Weight them or not. Add a head of black fur or a collar of grizzly hen hackle. Or not.. Doesn’t matter. This is one of the most effective and consistent nymphs around.

10) Lead Wing Coachman Wet Fly in sizes #10-#18 - This is another of the generic fishy-looking flies that tend to make up the majority of what is in my fly boxes. In the larger sizes, this fly is an excellent attractor pattern just about anywhere and in the smaller sizes (#14 and below), it is as good a caddis pupa imitation as any fly specifically designed for that purpose. Deadly in #14-#16 when fished with a swing and lift during the Grannom hatch, but worth trying any time.

11) Partridge and Orange Soft Hackle in sizes #12-#18 – Tied with a thin body of orange thread or floss and a sparse collar of brown partridge on a standard wet fly hook, this is another fly that looks like both nothing and everything a fish might see in the water and be compelled to take. Maybe it imitates a drowned crane fly or maybe a caddis pupa or even a sunken mayfly dun or emerger. Or maybe the fish think it’s a Partridge and Orange Soft Hackle. That could be too.. I don’t know. I do know that it works. Like the Wooly Bugger, there really is no wrong way to fish this fly. Cast it up in the heads of the pools and let it drift back just under the surface and watch for the boil of the fish. Do a swing and lift drift through the places in the pool where the water finally begins to slow down. Or feed it in under a brush pile or along a grass hummock-lined bank and then bring it back with short twists of the wrist. It’s equally deadly whichever method you choose.

12) You thought I forgot, didn’t you…:) Big, Ugly, Deerhair Ant in Size #10 or at smallest, #12. This is the nuclear bomb of dry flies for trout from about mid-May until first autumn frost, and sometimes beyond in both chronological directions. So simple of a fly to tie that even a ten-thumbed tier like me can churn out 15 or 20 an hour, the two big humps of deerhair separated by a slim waist with a few hairs pulled off to each side to represent the legs has probably accounted for more nice wild trout for me than any other three flies combined. They don’t last long, maybe seven or eight fish before they are so ripped up they look like a tiny black pincushion. But until their compressed bulk fails to the point that they start casting like a maple spinner, they’ll still catch lots of fish. And it is so easy to make bunches more. Additionally, this is an extremely enjoyable and exciting fly to fish. It’s like throwing a bass bug. You watch it splat down and see the V-wake of the trout hurrying to intercept and engulf it. I never get tired of fishing the big ant. And so far, the fish don’t seem to have become tired of eating them. I’m never without at least 200 of these.

So, there you have it. My “Can’t Do Without Dozen”. That wasn’t nearly as hard on me emotionally as I feared it might be. I’ll close though by letting you in on a little secret. I originally intended to make this a 10 fly list, but I just couldn’t do it. Oh well, its progress, not perfection…:)