Best Flies for early season stocked trout

[pbugos]

So tomorrow is opening day here in eastern PA. I would like to catch a stocked trout on something other than a green weenie. Any suggestions on alternative tactic for catching lazy stocked trout the hang in slow water?

 

[mikesl]

Not far from a green weenie, but green copper john works well.

pheasant tail and stonefly type nymphs have worked well too.
Stockies put a lot of things in their mouth i gather.

I've heard a lot of people have success with a white wooly bugger, but I can't speak from personal experience on that.

 

[kobalt335]

Can't go wrong with a wooly bugger of any color.

 

[MKern]

Prince nymph
Zig bug
Egg patterns
PT with beads and flash
Shiny nymphs

Pretty much any flies will work, but bright and/or shiny things work too.

Wooly buggers work because it triggers their predator instinct to see a bait fish swimm by.

 

[ryguyfi]

eggs if there's rainbows. I like white wooly buggers or really small olive ones swung through the current. Pheasant tails around size 16-18 and griffiths gnats if you see any risers.

 

[RLeep2]

Simple San Juan Worms in pink, red or wine secured to the center point of the hook shank with a narrow (covering no more than a quarter of the shank) band of orange or rust thread. Use a standard wet fly hook in #12-16. Put some weight in front of it and drift it through the "just like a raceway" flow sections where newly stocked trout tend to queue up.

 

[JackM]

Stocked trout are like snowflakes. Some will go hunkering away as soon as the sinkers start hitting the water, and some will go into a feeding frenzy. And most will be somewhere in between. It's all about where you'll be fishing.

Opening day is the coming out party for ATWs. If it is stocked and close to access, it will be crowded with many anglers of all persuasions. In these areas, if fish are to be had, they will be had on attractor patterns (junk flies) for the most part. You aren't going to see a lot of rises with the banks lined with anglers. If you can find distance from the crowds, the streams will fish mostly the same as any other day.

Though I stubbornly have taken the long rod when joining traditional anglers for Opening Day, I would have been better served by taking an ultralite spin outfit and powerbait, particularly if my goal was to just catch fish.

 

[RCFetter]

 

[beadhead2]

CB Stocker

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I'm busy tomorrow, but a fly I use almost all year is pretty deadly on freshly stocked trout. A Mercer's Z-wing caddis tied in sparkle Chartreuse with tan or brown wings. BTW, it works well on wild fish too.

 

[JackM]

Van, I hope that is an easy tie or you are definitely going overboard for OD.

 

[troutbert]

beadhead2 wrote:
CB Stocker

Back around 1970 or so we used a streamer almost identical to that was just called a White Marabou Streamer. My buddy and I called it the "Killer Marabou."

This was before the Wooly Bugger. Marabou streamers were commonly used then. White and black were the most common colors, and some liked yellow ones.

 

[Maurice]

Two of us worked a good run on a stocked stream for about an hour before any fish were hooked. First we tried buggers, then nymphs, all the while seeing a partiicular fish rising and flashing near the surface. Then I tried a brace for wets and began picking up fish. Most came on a partridge and yellow. First was a nice wild brown. Then a bunch of stockies and after things slowed down I put on a Green weenie and it started all over again.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Jack it is a super easy tie; usually a size 14 scud hook, tapered body of whatever color dubbing you like, go up 2/3 of the hook, tie in a piece of z-lon, and make two stubby wings. I usually pull it back to the hook bend and snip. Finish with a furry head, peacock, or my favorite Chocolate Lab fur. I always take a dubbing brush to the head and make it buggy. You can also rib it with copper or gold. The best thing is they aren't all that fashionable anymore so you won't find them in many (if any) catalogs. The fact is I tie dozens of them over the year anyway so my box will have several available if I do get out in the next day or so.

 

[jkilroy]

Junk flies, and switch them every couple of fish if they stop biting.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I don't completely agree with the junk fly theory though they can work, as shown by the avid Green Weenie users. I got out for the first time today and started with a chartreuse Z-wing caddis. I rolled one fish in the first good run, and after a bunch of drifts switched to a Tan caddis the same basic pattern. Maybe made two drifts before I hooked my first fish of the year followed by two more on consecutive casts. There were a few tan caddis about, but mostly I was seeing a lot of Early (or were they late) Black Stones in the 14-16 range . Switched to a no. 16 soft hackle with a dark grey body and lit them up! Fished with subtle twitches it produced steady strikes for the duration of my outing. One nice pool produced over twenty trout and that was after being pounded the whole time I fished upstream. If trout have been in the water for more than a few days they have to learn how to eat, and these fish were tuned into the Stones.They were singing "Gimme Shelter"; I think.

 

[fadeaway263]

Van Cleave. You might want to take a listen to Billy Joel's "Honesty".

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Fade; I purposely didn't write a report because I was fishing one of the most heavily pressured (and stocked) creeks in Chester Co. and apparently no one had really fly fished it, because the fish were easy to catch; in fact the run mentioned I mentioned I stopped fishing after awhile because it got boring. an angler on the other side of the creek exclaimed, "that is just ridiculous!" There were multiple fish in every good run or pool and they were eating what was available. Summary: BH z-wing caddis (14), and a bh soft hackle; brown hackle with grey body and tail (16). Also, I'm not a huge Billy Joel fan, though I do appreciate sarcasm. Those flies will catch freshly stocked fish, as well as holdovers and wild fish just about anywhere if you can deliver them properly.

 

[FiveWeight]

I didn't read all the replies. I'm sure someone posted this already. Anything that looks like a food pellet or a piece of dung/worm/water bug, etc. If those don't work San juan worm or an earthworm from under yer feet works just as well. If your looking to catch fish... Keep it simple. The science project can come later in the season when there's three things in the water head'n for the air and two in the air head'n for the water. Good luck n have fun.

 

[nathanazajac]

I like to use a small variant of the trouser worm for the big slow pools that the fish are not doing much in. You can bounce it to entice the bites I found they work well for the freshly stocked fish that won't hit a drifting nymph or egg.