Big Native Brook Trout

[Bamboozle]

...I use a parachute more, I think it works a touch better, but admit they are pretty hit or miss on floatability. A good tie floats well but a lot of crappy ties sink especially in heavier water...

I always tie a few parachutes with really oversized hackle extending all the way over the tails. Those are the parachutes I use in "heavier water." The longer hackle really makes a difference.

I'm particularly big fan of parachute Ausable Wulff which takes fish everywhere I use it even when it looks nothing like anything that hatches where I'm fishing.

I do something similar with EWC. My choppy water versions are always heavily hackled and I even make a foam bodied version.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Good looking tie. Essentially a very similar pattern to my go to Brookie pattern - Ausable Wulff. I like the yellow in yours though. Lots of yellow bugs on small Brookie streams in the Summer.

I also do variations of the Mr. Rapidan by changing up the body color and wings. For the wings, use this product as I have found that it is virtually unsinkable, very easy to work with and the color choices are limitless. https://www.epflies.com/product/ep-fibers-3-d/

Some patterns I tie #12 and #14 for small Class A's:

Tail= Straight Moose Body Hair
Body= Peacock Herl
Hackle= Orange variegated w/black
Wings= Orange

Tail= Straight Moose Body Hair
Body= Kapok Fluoro Pink Dubbing
Hackle= Brown/Grizzly Mix
Wings=Pink Calamari

 

[Fish Sticks]

My biggest brook trout in PA came at night. Your plenty capable of catching them in the day time. But if the pond you pictured is safe to fish at night and close to your car with an easy walk might consider fishing the day. Returning to the pond and casting an unweighted marabou muddler mouse barbless on a size 6 hook working it just in the surface film.

 

[wildtrout2]

I always see white the best. I've tried pink, yellow, etc. posts and white shows up better. Sounds strange since the bubbles are white, but, yeah.

I use a parachute more, I think it works a touch better, but admit they are pretty hit or miss on floatability.

Agree on all the above, it's why a parachute Adams is my go-to for natives. Plus, I love the top water action.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

I also like Wulffs in various colors.

I got to be honest, when talking brook trout, bulky, buggy, high floating dry flies just work to best it seems.
They hold products like Aquel longer, float higher and get their attention.

I'm surprised and also not surprised by all the parachute flies. Not as bulky as I like but most brook trout eat anything. So not surprised.

Again fly selection is so unimportant for freestone brook trout for the most part.

 

[wildtrout2]

Again fly selection is so unimportant for freestone brook trout for the most part.

Yep, just don't spook them.

 

[pcray1231]

Agree they eat anything.

There are other factors, though. Take a stimmie. I mean, nearly a perfect brookie fly. Floats high and stays that way, like a cork. And they hit it just fine. But I miss sooooo many more fish, I think because of the long shank. And once you miss em that is often it.

The truth is the difference between a good brookie fly and a bad one isn't fish refusal. If they see it, they hit it, it could be a cigarette butt. It's whether the fish can see it. Whether you can see it, often in heavy water. Whether the hook % is good. Being the right size so that the 2 inchers can't take it, but the ones you want can. Whether it stays floating. It's propensity to catch brush. Etc. Pretty much everything EXCEPT fish pickiness.

I think fish see the parachutes a little better, with body in the water, instead of a few feather tips dancing in already ripply water. I think the red on a royal type fly gets attention from a little further away. I think size 12's and 14's regular shank flies strike the balance between being big enough to see, big enough that the 2" fish can't pull it down, but keep a high hooking % on the typical 7" fish that you're after. I think the fish occasionally miss high/dancing flies like a wulff.

And I think all of the above is the difference between catching 60 vs. catching 40 with a few more misses. i.e. they all do ok.

 

[Bamboozle]

Agree they eat anything...

...If they see it, they hit it, it could be a cigarette butt...

So I guess this is the perfect brookie fly?

 

[Swattie87]

So I guess this is the perfect brookie fly?

View attachment 1641228717

Shank’s a little long. But yeah, it’ll work.

 

[silverfox]

Speaking of yellow flies and stimulators. This is one of my favorite brookie patterns. Size 14 TMC200R so it hooks the little ones just fine.

 

[pcray1231]

So I guess this is the perfect brookie fly?

I think the shank's too long. I may have trouble seeing it. And no idea how well it stays floating.

But yeah, I think it'd catch fish. Wouldn't have much fear of refusals.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

So I guess this is the perfect brookie fly?

View attachment 1641228717

That's the goto fly at "The Run" on Yellow Breeches during the infamous bread hatch. Watched some spin guys tie on a bare hook and then thread a cigarette butt on and absolutely rake the fish at the wooden bridge and dam.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Gotta get that butt fly down to size 26

 

[silverfox]

Gotta get that butt fly down to size 26

 

[Fish Sticks]

That fly reminds me of my secret weapon in the Lackawanna to imitate a very heavy sat and sunday, er, um….hatch.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I like my brookie dries to be very buoyant. They need to be able to support the weight of my 3mm bead pheasant tails, which is what I actually catch my fish on.

 

[Bamboozle]

That's the goto fly at "The Run" on Yellow Breeches during the infamous bread hatch. Watched some spin guys tie on a bare hook and then thread a cigarette butt on and absolutely rake the fish at the wooden bridge and dam.

I created it essentially for the Run along with a French Fry Fly I made from spun deer hair. I fished it at the Run and caught a few fish and a duck on the French Fry Fly once.

The Cigarette Butt Fly used to work a lot better back in the day but ever since they put the Surgeon General's warming on cigarette packs I think a lot of trout stopped taking them.

Maybe I should work on a vape cartridge fly...

 

[Fish Sticks]

That fly reminds me of my secret weapon in the Lackawanna to imitate a very heavy sat and sunday, er, um….hatch.


View attachment 1641228721

Haha i am just kidding there is a guy named simon gram who makes and sells those for pike and makes vladi worms i think too with them

 

[Fish Sticks]

In all seriousness i think conditions way more important for large brook trout than fly

 

[Bamboozle]

All kidding aside, I buy 1/8" & 3/16" foam cylinders in bright orange, yellow & insect green and lash a short 1/4" or so piece in the center on a size 16 or 18 hook and use them on more than a few brookie streams.

They take about 11 seconds to tie and the brookies clobber them.