Five or so must tie flys

[jaybo41]

Welcome to the forum! A Jeep fan is always OK in my book int:

Great question and discussion that follows. This is REALLY a very tough question as you can tell by everyone's responses.

Afish has a solid list and I'm pretty much in line with that. The other suggestions given: Green Weenie, San Juan Worm, Egg, Pheasant Tail, Zebra Midge, ants, and Soft Hackles are excellent choices as well. All of the aforementioned have a place in my box. I might add to this list Stimulators for prospecting purposes and perfect if you are using a tandem rig and dry fly as the indicator. I have no doubt that as the thread gains popularity, you'll see a few more patterns added to your list.

Getting down to 5 flys in my mind means 5 flies that you can fish with confidence, as you can see we all have a variance in preference.

 

[shakey]

i too would have to go mostly with soft hackles.

partridge and green,yellow or orange,even though that's three flies let us count it as one partridge soft hackle.

peacock and brown,black or badger hen.

starling and purple.

above are my MUST haves.after that the choices get tough.

i'd say for the last two choices i'd take winged wets.

a winged GRHE,slate mallard wing on the larger sizes,starling on the smaller.

a leadwined coachman would be my fifth choice now,but you know how it goes,next week i might say invicta,picket pin,alaxandra,greenwell's glory,etc.etc.

 

[ErnieBall]

Well - first things first - don't let all the "technicality" of fly-fishing scare you off. That happened to me and it wasn't until I realize that I could literally fish anywhere in the United States with 5 flies and catch fish that I started to learn a lot. My five flies:


Bead Head Pheasant Tail - my main nymph - can imitate all underwater aquatic species and you can get creative with the beadhead. I like olive

Elk Hair Caddis - This is going to take my caddis spot as well as my attractor spot. It is a great prospecting fly and just one of those flies that looks great on the surface as it skitters about.

Adams - If you are confused during a mayfly hatch, tie on a 14 Adams - It should serve you well.

Hares Ear - Another great nymph that you can really fatten up to your liking to maybe get a shot at some bigger fish. Gold Rib is key on this one

Copper John - I love Copper Johns because you can tie them up in a myriad of colors using different color wire. Only thing that sucks about them is that they are kind of hard to tie (for me). I can never get the body tapered right when using the wire. Still....a great fly.

 

[71jeep]

Hi All...

Thanks to all that replied and will reply!

I figured I would put a list up of the suggestions so far for anyone trying to keep track it is a few more than five but not too bad,so here we go.

Wooly buggers
Hares ear
Beetle
Elkhair
Adams
Cahil
Sulfer
Pheasant tail
Egg patterns
Suker spawn
Zebra midge
Soft hakles
Uncased caddis
Scud
Ant
Copper jhon

Out of all these I have about half of them already in a few scattered sizes in my boxes.
Of the ones I do not have I am at the bench now trying to tie some up.

Thanks guys

Allen....

 

[bam]

I'll give you 6

Various sized adams, tied from bushy to sparse is a good representation for anything from caddis to mayfly to terrestrials.

Buggers, weighted and unweighted. Black, white, and brown. Olive works for me as well.

BWO wet, size 16-18. Tie it as a soft hackle with the grey starling feathers. Fish as the trailing fly in a tandem rig or in the surface film. Looks like an emerging caddis/BWO or swimming nymph.

Hares ear or pheasant tail for your nymph patterns. I like the hares ear for faster runs, pheasant tail if they're picky.

Cream sucker spawn

San Juan worm