Different Flies, your opinion

[FlyMaster99]

As far as nymphs go, what do you guys like a lot? I use some ph tail nymphs, caddis, stoneflies, wolly buggers, do you guys like the guides choice hares ear? With nymphs what do you think works the best, stripping the fly in, drifting or what?

 

[mike_richardson]

best nymph out there is the pheasant tail for sure. I have caught more fish on that fly than any other. I would have to say that the hares ear is a close second. I find myself using it a lot less these days though. Squirrel nymphs have gave me a lot of success.

Caddis larva imitations are killer. I use both a vinyl rib and ice dub version for mine.

I like to use stones a lot, and find that biot tail and antenna stones work better for me than rubber leg stones. The best materials to tie them from are hare, and squirrel in my opinion. I like to use these as my anchor flies.

honorable mention would be prince, copper john, green weenie, walts worm, frenchies, to name a few.

a lot of guys kill on midges, but I think I may have caught 2 or 3 fish on them, excluding one day on spring creek where a fishing buddy and I had a field day on zebra midges, and blue quills.

 

[dubthethorax]

Such a broad questions...Dependings on the hatches, water temp, time of year, etc.

 

[lv2nymph]

So I've never seen a guides choice hares ear so I googled it, and first impression was that it looked like at least three flies in one then I saw at the bottom it said a fly totally tricked out with all the options. They got that right.
Speaking of your general searching nymphs to have all the time I like a dark brown mink bead head, Whitlock's red fox squirrel nymph with/without bead, a bead on a size 18 scud style hook dressed in just thread, a little dubbing, quills, just keep it small. A grub looking fly on a scud style hook, shrimp/scuds, soft hackle nymphs in various shades I like to have at least two different colors of dubbing in the blend for those. A nymph tied from the hide of a red fox makes a great jig fly I tie them on a size 8 jig hook with a 3/16 tungsten bead on it. Yes it gets down quick, it's a great fly to drop an 18 of off. Various colors of flymphs, beaded caddis pupa. And the ones that are mentioned above.

 

[MD_Gene]

I almost always fish the nymphs (and mostly the ones that have been mentioned) upstream.

The soft hackle flies I will fish up and swing.

 

[addictedangler]

Best to go to the stream and turn some rocks over or seine some insects. You can get a good idea of what the fish eat. Some nymphs are clingers and very poor swimmers while others can swim almost as well as a minnow. Also the time of year will dictate major hatches and insect size. Good luck.

 

[BelAirSteve]

I fish soft hackles most frequently...I seem to take more fish on a classic hares ear soft hackle than any other fly. Could be that I lack the patience of tweaking my nymph rig to find the right depth, etc. But I enjoy soft hackle fishing the most.

 

[lv2nymph]

Flymaster, I'm guessing that you're relatively new to ffing. We can list all the flies we like but in the end you'll end up with your own list of favorites. That could very well have very few of what we like. There's a ton of them out there, and they all work at some point and time. Turning rocks to see what's going on in the stream you regularly fish will aid you in type and color of nymphs to use just remember that if the nymphs you find are immature you'll be seeing them smaller than they will be when they are active and the fish are keying on them. When you start to go that route it will be a good idea to do some digging to try and figure out what insects you are seeing and their size at maturity and when. Then you can match the generic patterns to those bugs, If you've been tying long enough you'll have the experience with different materials to tie in the proper action to match the naturals you've found. Take them on one or two at a time. It seems like a lot but if you take it in small bites at a time it all comes together, none of this happens over night. Though it's a great journey to go through and well worth the effort.

 

[Wallyfish]

I mainly use WD40's, RS2's, soft hackles, pheasant tails and black fur ants as my under the surface fly preference.

Fur ants are great when fished wet. When I fish tandems, the soft hackle is the first fly with the above others as the dropper. The soft hackle is either a 16 or 18, same with the ant. The balance of the mentioned flies are in size 18-24.

 

[pcray1231]

PT's for most mayflies. Olive Hare's Ears seem to work better for me at BWO time.

Some fish seem to like flash, others abhor it, but beadheads can be incorporated into either of the above.

For MB nymphs in particular, I use a dedicated MB nymph. It's kind of like a PT, but longer and slenderer with a lighter tan colored body.

I'll use scuds on occasion, either as a cressbug around cressbeds or dredged deep in the winter, when there are no real hatches to speak of. And the venerable Walt's Worm has a permanent spot in my box and gets tried when nothing else is working, and sometimes proves to be the ticket. In late spring/early summer big honkin stonefly nymphs dredged deep are commonly used as a searching pattern.

Soft hackles are pretty much only for swinging wets during caddis hatches for me.

I use emergers a lot but use more exact matches, and consider these in the realm of the dry fly.