Beginner Brook Trout Fly Box

[VictoryLights]

I've been asked to build a beginner fly box for PA brookies. Something like 2-3 dozen flies to get started. Any thoughts?

 

[redietz]

Humpies, Royal Wulffs, Patriots, Renegades, Bivisibles and Mr. Rapidans if you're thinking dries. Throw in some Partridge and Oranges or maybe a Breadcrust for subsurface.

 

[coyoterahn]

How about a Griffiths gnat. I've usually found these to be a productive all around fly.

 

[troutbert]

Parachutes are very good, because they work well in both flat, smooth water and in fast, broken water.

You really only need two color types:

1) Light: yellow body, with grizzly & light ginger hackle, i.e. Yellow Adams Parachute

2) Medium: The famous Adams Parachute, which has a gray body. But at least as good, or probably better, is to use a tan body, which I guess you could call a Parachute Hares Ear.

For high flows, Stimulators are very effective and fun to fish. My favorite: Size 14, yellow body.

Terrestrials. In summer and fall, terrestrials commonly outfish other flies. Big ant and beetle patterns that "Plop" when they hit the water. I prefer deer hair bodies, but some prefer foam. And an Inchworm imitation.

 

[dryflyguy]

I'll second terrestrials.
I use beetles almost exclusively on brookie streams.

And also prefer deer hair.
They're certainly not as durable as foam patterns.
But I'm convinced that they work better

 

[Tigereye]

Beetles, pink squirmy worms, and green weenie.

 

[Baron]

I second that Tigereye.

 

[Bamboozle]

I like dry flies that float well and that I can see because 99% of my brookie fishing is done on broken water or streams with limited flat pools.

For that reason, I like Humpies (red & green bodies) tied with foam in place of the deer hair. The other thing I use is tan Elk Wing Caddis tied with DENSE hackle and bodies made of cylindrical foam in lieu of dubbing. I also make up small floating inchworms with cylindrical foam in insect greet, yellow and even red. Brookies will hit anything…

However, 80% of my brookies are caught subsurface. For that, I go a Beadhead (BH) Prince Nymph or a BH Flashback Gold Ribbed Hares Ear. The only two other subsurface flies I need are a Starling (or Snipe) & Purple and a Partridge & Peacock soft hackle.

I guess that’s why I only carry a single tiny fly box when I go brookie fishing.

 

[JoeE]

I fish only dies as well for brook trout in small steams. I only have 2 to add a pheasant tail dry and a GRHE dry both standard and parachute I like all them bushy and I also tie no smaller fly than a 14 for brook trout. But a Adams, Royal Wulff and Mr Rapidan are 1,2and 3

 

[jifigz]

Elk hair Caddis is probably my favorite dry fly for brook trout. Royal Wulffs and small Chernobyl ants are also great. For subsurface buggers, green weenies, bright pink San Juan worms.

 

[dc410]

A small Picket Pin or variation thereof has always produced well for me subsurface for brookies.

 

[tomgamber]

jifigz wrote:
Elk hair Caddis is probably my favorite dry fly for brook trout.

what he said.

 

[PennKev]

Hippie Stomper in Royal Wulff colors
Black Nose Dace colored bucktail streamer.
Black Wooly Bugger
Prince Nymph

 

[greenghost]

Rarely use anything else than:

DRY
Stimulator with green body #12
Small elk hair hopper or thickly tied caddis 14
Beetles/ant 14-20

WET
Black wooly bugger #12
Green weenie 14 -16

 

[Fly-Swatter]

In my experience, how your fly acts is more important that what our fly looks like. If you are struggling to keep a dry fly afloat or a nymph from getting hung on the bottom, that's the biggest problem.

Having said that, here are my preferred small freestone stream brookie flies:

Dry: #12 or 14 EHC, Parachute adams, foam humpy, stimulator, hot butt yellow sally
Wet:#12 or 14 Beadhead prince

One hedge: I usually carry something that sinks fast, like a weighted bugger in #8 or 10, for deep runs and pools.

Keep it simple. Get your fly noticed. Catch fish.

 

[azariy]

I would highly recommend you Griffiths gnat

 

[RLeep2]

For any (not just brookies) small/medium stream searching with a dry fly, I like a simple deer hair delta wing caddis. It's just a deer hair caddis with the wing split into equal 45 degree angled sections.
Figure eight a wrap or two of dubbing around and in front of the wing and tie in a junk hackle (because you're gonna clip it flush on the bottom) in front of the wing. Floats like a cork in broken water and lays flush on pool surfaces. Really versatile fly. I use mostly a hare's ear body/brown hackle combo in #12-16, but tan/ginger, olive/brown and very dark brown/ dark dun are also useful combos...

 

[pcray1231]

1 dozen Parachute Adams, 12's or 14's.

1 dozen various nymphs, doesn't matter what type.

Couple small streamers, couple fluffier flies like wulffs or patriots or humpies or stimulators.

90% of my brookie fishing is dries. It doesn't matter what you use, more important is being able to see it, white works well. The fluffier flies are for heavier water where the parachutes are swamping. There's always a few deeper plunge pools where you tie on a dropper, that's what the nymphs are for, again it doesn't matter what. And sometimes you run into a big splash dam pool, or log jam pool, or bridge pool, or huge undercut, that you wanna pull a streamer through, especially if a few brown trout are present and there usually are.

Brookies aren't picky. If they see it before you spook them, they'll hit. That's why dries outfish nymphs, it's not that they won't take nymphs, it's that they'll hit either just fine and you can fish dries from further away. The super high floaters seem to reduce hook up rate for me, but are sometimes necessary in really heavy water.

 

[wgmiller]

pcray1231 wrote:
Brookies aren't picky. If they see it before you spook them, they'll hit. That's why dries outfish nymphs, it's not that they won't take nymphs, it's that they'll hit either just fine and you can fish dries from further away. The super high floaters seem to reduce hook up rate for me, but are sometimes necessary in really heavy water.

^ This.

Brookies aren't highly selective, and as mentioned, will hit just about anything, so long as they aren't spooked. You really don't need but a few different offerings of dries, streamers, and nymphs to fill out a brookie box. A good dry/dropper setup would cover both bases and almost guarantee success.

 

[troutbert]

Regarding "brookies aren't picky."

I've seen some cases where 3 people are fishing together using quite different flies, and catching about the same number and size of brookies.

But, I've also seen cases when brookie fishing when one fly outfishes another fly by a wide margin.

For example, a buddy and I fished Shenandoah Park for 4 days, around the third week in April. A parachute adams outfished elk hair caddis by quite a lot.

I talked to someone who guided in Shenandoah Park and they said the same thing, that a parachute adams will outfish the elk hair caddis in the park.

I've also seen days when green inchworms outfished deer hair ants. And I've seen the reverse.

In the summer and early fall, under low water conditions, I think terrestrials generally outfish other types of dry flies.

One guy told me "If they won't hit a size 12 Adams, I don't need to catch them."

There are times when a size 12 standard Adams will do very well. But there are other times when other flies will outfish it by a lot.