What fly do you use, and why?

[Thudpucker]

I have been fly fishing since 1961. I love it. Shall we have a contest to see how many places we've been, and how much we've spent.
That'd make J. Paul Getty shudder.

I watched the Tying Video's DryRod put up. Great stuff. So interesting.
I dont tie. I just fish!
Still, I love looking at those creations, and fishing with them.

My one regret is that I somehow dont tie on very many flies when I get to fishing.
I sometimes fish with the same fly for an hour.

Yet I have in my boxes, plenty enough flies to tie a new one on ever 15 minutes.
But I dont. And I dont know why I dont!

Maybe I'm too afraid I'll miss that strike on the next cast.
Or maybe the next fly wont be any good (like the last one? LOL)
Or maybe it's the consternation of not knowing why to tie on whichever fly strikes my fancy?
Yikes, so many choices.

In all those years, some flies do well in some places, and not in others. Yet Rainbow are the same everywhere.

For instance a really badly boogerd up Spratly works well in those Chilly Canadian waters, but didn't work at all in Alaska's clear chilly lakes.

Little Teeeny gnats and skeeters (#20 and 22's) work very well in the upper San Juan but dont work in the lower San Juan.
In fact, I've never seen them little buggers work anywhere except the upper San Juan.

Big stuff, six n' 8's work in Eastern Washington, but not in Alaska or down here in Alabama.
Big Wooly buggers and Sculpins work in some clear lakes????
What the heck?

So I'm asking you fly fishermen and women. What do you use next? And what's your reasoning for using that one?
And for Pete's sake, tell me where you are fishing. What state and what water?
Other wise your answer just wont make sense.
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[flygoddess]

Very good Post!
Funny how it goes. I fish in Utah and Idaho for Cutts, Browns, and rainbows with Brookies and few other species. The weird thing is, the flies I use in Utah that just slay the fish don't work in Idaho and vise versa.
There are of course the standards that work anywhere like Copper Johns, Adams, Royal Wulff's and Humpy's, along with certain color streamers.
In Utah I use a lot of very tiny 28 to 32's. Snow flies and what not, But Idaho, a Griffith Gnat works well.
I will try a fly maybe 5 to 10 cast, if nothing I will switch flies trying different approaches each time.
I will also not stay in one spot for long periods, even if they are biting. Try to find new spots if a fly is working, or try different flies on a good day to see if I can find that Holy Grail Flie[cool]
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[Scruffy_Fly]

[reply]

I will also not stay in one spot for long periods, even if they are biting. Try to find new spots if a fly is working, or try different flies on a good day to see if I can find that Holy Grail Flie[cool] [/reply]

Ever since I have started fly fishing in 99 I have been in search for the dozen Holy Grail Flies. I must have at least 100 different styles of flies and now have probably close to a thousand dollars worth of fly tying materials. I think I have 6 "Go to Flies" that don't always work but work more reliably than any others.... for me.

But I am still looking. Yesterday I tied 4 different flies I had never tied or fished before. Three were size 26. Then I tied a big ol' honker... a size 14.

I have a lot of flies that the fish just loved one day but I have not caught a thing with ever since.

I like fishing for brookies because they are like Mikey. They will eat anything.
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[Scruffy_Fly]

[reply]
.........
So I'm asking you fly fishermen and women. What do you use next? And what's your reasoning for using that one?
And for Pete's sake, tell me where you are fishing. What state and what water?
Other wise your answer just wont make sense. [/reply]

There are only a few things I have learned about what flies to use.

On the first few to several miles below a bottom release reservoir such as on the San Juan small flies - 18 to 26 tend to work better. But don't be afraid to try a huge size 12 humpy or Royal Wulff. Especially in the riffles. It is against the grain of what the pundents say but it has a fair chance of working during the summer. After that few to severals a little larger flies tend to work better.

On small streams that don't see that much pressure size 14 dries (Humpies, royal wulffs, adams is about all you need) with size 4x tippet is the ticket. Size 4x tippet does not wrap around the willows as easily. Abrasion on the 4x tippet is not as detrimental.

I don't change my flies any where as often as I should but it just seems to take a long time to decide on the flies, change out the tippet, tie all the knots, add and remove weights.

A good thing to do is to read some decent fishing reports and start out with some of the flies that it recommends then when you find out that they don't work because the information has to be a month old is try things in similar sizes and smaller.

The "next to the best" thing is absorb all this stuff you run across on these forums.

But the best thing to do is open your clamshell wallet and hire your local Fly Goddess clone to show the ropes for the local water.

That is the extent of what I have learned.
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[Thudpucker]

[laugh] strange to see a #12 referred to as a "big ol' thing". Those were about all I fished with in eastern Washington's lakes.

Thanks so much for the benefit of your experience. I read (or used to) all that was written on Fish Biology. I also went to all the Biologists talks all I opportunity to.
Even the Biologists are perplexed at the feeding habits and times of the wild fish.
The hatchery fish even change after a season in the wild.
They become picky, just as the wild ones are picky.

In Eastern Washington, the weather was almost always the same.
Hot, Clear and Sunny. In those days I never would have considered using the Tiny #20 flies.

I'd come up with a Shrimp imitation with some Green chenelle. That usually worked. So I always started with that one.
Those Leech's might have worked. I just cant remember if any did.

I casted and retrieved. Mooching a wet fly slowly through the weeds.
Flies that expand when you stop the mooch, and retract when you pull always work better using the Mooch tecnique.
Fat flies, with softer dubbing are better than long skinny hard body Flies.

Casting from the lake, up into the stream that's flowing down into the lake, a Bi-Visable works best.
The one I liked best was called a 'Horse Turd' I dont know if that was a local name or not.
It had White hackle on both ends, and brown in the middle. Small hooks, about #15-17 were best with that fly.
I never knew why that fly worked. It just did. And only in that spot.

Doing that you needed a line with a sinking tip, not the heavy weight forward fast sinking line used for the deep part of the lake.

Out in the lake, I caught as many right up near the Beach (in the grassy area's) as I did with the same tactic out in the Deeper water near the rocks.

I rowed. I learned to hate the sound of a motor while trolling.
The sound, the shaking, the smell, constantly steering....all of it together was annoying.
I bet I've rowed half way round the world.

A guy trolled a Carey Special. Trolled it and it caught fish too.

In the cold waters of Alaska's small lakes, those Maribou Leechs worked very well. Small shrimp too.
The trick up there was finding a high spot in the lake.
A place where you could cast out into the deep and mooch the fly up hill, toward the shallow.

Strangly, I never botherd to fish for Rainbows in the Rivers. In the Rivers we always fished for Salmon.

I know a guy who could catch fish in a Mud Puddle.
He doesn't know why he has that kind of luck.
I'm after the reasoning. Why do YOU try something?
Is it because it worked once before?
Do you get some kind of a feeling when you look at all those flies in your box?
Or when you look at the water, the Weather, the Sky, the...???
Something triggers your mind to select something.
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[Scruffy_Fly]

[reply]
[laugh] strange to see a #12 referred to as a "big ol' thing". Those were about all I fished with in eastern Washington's lakes.

............ [/reply]

I have a friend that ties and uses size 26 and 32's a lot. I spent a lot of years in Texas before I came to Colorado. So he is always making fun of me when he sees me fishing a s12 to s6 fly. Laughing saying that those are TEXAS flies. Everything is bigger in Texas.

We were taking pictures of his flies the other day. Most were the little ones but one was a size 16. I laughed and said I see you are starting to use some of those Texas size flies.
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[Scruffy_Fly]

[reply]
[laugh] ..........Do you get some kind of a feeling when you look at all those flies in your box?
Or when you look at the water, the Weather, the Sky, the...???
Something triggers your mind to select something. [/reply]

Yes, I get a feeling when I look at those flies in the box. A feeling that I a fly looks like it is "buggy" and it should work. When it works on the next trip I expect it to work. When it does not work I get this feeling looking at the box that I don't know a darn thing about what fish like and why. [pirate]

The water, the weather and the sky what I know about that is the same thing that you get from reading the fishing rags and listening to guys talk. Bright day = bright colored flashy flies. Dull day = more subdued to dark colors and maybe a little flash. Rainy days can be good fishing days. Rainy days and snowy days can mean a significant BWO hatch.

But the number one rule that I have come to feel is that there are lots of exceptions to any rule when you are thinking fishing.

I, also, know a couple of fish whisperers who just know that it is the day for a fly but don't know exactly why they know.
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[Thudpucker]

[cool]Scruffy, that shrimp lookin' fly in your avitar should work in any still water impoundment.
Even in a large lake, it would be a good one to prospect with.

Where'd you come onto that one?
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[Scruffy_Fly]

The picture in my avitar is much bigger than the fly.

It is a mysis shrimp pattern. Tied on a size 18 or 20 hook.

There are a 3 rivers here in Colorado that have mysis shrimp that come out bottom release Reservoirs. Some of the rainbows and browns below the reservoir are huge.

Actually I have not had a chance to fish it but I showed a friend how to tie it and he assures me that it works quite well in the toilet bowl.

A guy at the West Denver Fly Tying Clinic, a couple of years ago, gave me one as we were cleaning up but I did not see how he tied itor what he used. So last summer I just tried to do something similar to his. Oops! I just realized I lied when I said I had never fished it. I have never fished the ones I tied. But that one from the tying clinic I had a chance to site cast to an absolute Brute in the Hog Pen on the Taylor. But I hook set it while her mouth was still open. She shot like a canon shell across the riffles she was in, spraying water as she flew.
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