Fly size

dudemanspecial

dudemanspecial

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Jan 14, 2013
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Westmoreland County
This question is coming from a guy who only gets out 5 or less times a year, and has been tying for about 5 years, but is just now getting serious about it. Am going to have more days on the water this year as well......just to paint the picture.

At what point do you believe it becomes redundant to carry multiple sizes of the same pattern? I know there are specific patterns for specific fisheries, but I am asking in a more generic sense.

For example, and what spurred my question.....I am tying up zebra midges. I traditionally have kept these in size 18 only. This year I am tying 18, 20 and 22. As I look at them, I wonder if Iwould be better off just tying 20's, or just 18's and 22's.
Do you believe that it is important to keep these in all 3 of these sizes? Or do you go so far as to go 16-24 on these?

Other examples would be
adams....i keep every size from 12-18.
Hares ears and ptails, same thing 12-18
Eggs and sucker spawn, 12-16.

Do you consider it good to have all of these sizes? Or better off saving time and materials and skipping sizes? Only 12,16,20s or such. Only carry eggs in 14?

I know this is subjective to fishing style and location, but lets just assume you are fishing central and NC Pa.
 
Do you weight the zebra differently when you size up or down? Most of my nymphs I keep in many sizes because I weight them based on hook size. Also certain patterns I only tie in one size for example rainbow warriors are only done in size 16, I have tied them in 14/18 but like them in a 16 so I stick with that. I tend to lean on the smaller size though for most things.

If you REALLY wanted to streamline things you could get away with all your basic nymphs in size 16 and a couple in 18 and call it a day. This is all coming from a guy that carries way too many flies though.
 
dudemanspecial wrote:
As I look at them, I wonder if Iwould be better off just tying 20's, or just 18's and 22's.
Do you believe that it is important to keep these in all 3 of these sizes? Or do you go so far as to go 16-24 on these?
Click to expand...

You can skip every other size and never have any problems, particularly when you are talling flies below #16. The smaller you get the less noticeable difference there is between sizes.

Other examples would be
adams....i keep every size from 12-18.
Hares ears and ptails, same thing 12-18
Eggs and sucker spawn, 12-16.
Click to expand...

Again, skip every other size. For what it's worth, I almost never fish classic PT's bigger than #16.

Eggs patterns, same thing. Dump the #12's maybe. #14 is my go to hook size for eggs.

The more you fish, the more you will determine your own size/pattern preferences. Some patterns you will prefer in certain sizes, while you will prefer others in different sizes.
 
Most dries and nymphs are #14 & #18's ( 2 med.size boxes)..... also a big box for attractor and stoneflies dries......and another big box for attractor nymphs and buggers.....also 1 little box for midges #22's
 
Everyone that fishes a size 20 and 6x and smaller have always impressed me. I can’t get myself to fish anything smaller than an 18 and 5x.
 
I am not trying to hijack the above/original post, but I have fished with #32 flies on 9x tippet on the Elk River in West Virginia. I did this with a guide who is originally from Harrisburg, PA.

Dry on top and nymph on the bottom. Every trout caught was on the dropper. Nothing on the top. It worked. I watched the guide tie all of the flies we fished.

I used to live in WV and spent a lot of time canoeing there. The Elk River is a pretty amazing place at Elk Springs.

 
Dudemanspecial, adapt! Your getting in. Perfect! I am a firm believer, a fly tyer goes his or her own way. You may ty all those but to adapt and add a little zing, some booyah, do you a favor, tie you!

Every person ties the fly different. Be different, be you! Yep, 20, 22, not much room. I suggest quill patterns on the small hooks. Caught Big one's on 20 and smaller/


Get out of that, what he tied and go with what you tied. Happiness will follow! Now, your style, is the most important you may ever know! People find me, i do not know how, for the style, not the pattern! Believe me, they have to contact other sources to find me. I built my fishing career on not finding me. Busy now more than ever, how come!

Maxima12
 
I like it, i like fly tying, I like all the people that come around, i like going to all the different camps, i like the food, drinks, the friendship, the flair, the purpose.

Most of all, I like Pa. for the opportunity. God bless Pa. and the infinate people of great culture, freedom and wisdom i have met.

Song, "I did It My Way". My wat, your way, i like it,
,
There way, was a take off on me! Since i have strruggled for my way

There way, i like but ignore. I am an "Old Horse", pulling an old cart of, NOW! 50 years later! Now is not new! the beginng of a new one!

Maxima12
 
As you progress you will find yourself fishing afew streams say 3 or 4 90% of the time. Usually out of convenience. Your probably going to find alot of overlap in fly patterns and sizes on those streams. You will eventually settle on about a dozen or so patterns in 2 maybe 3 sizes.

It seems a natural progression. I was there as were a few of my fishing friends. You want to cover all your bases, so you tie an inordinate amount of flies in a host of different sizes. Eventually you find yourself fishing the same ones year after year. You then weed your boxes down as you find some flies serve double duty ie a 14 slate drake comparadun makes a nice spinner imitation and copies a red quill perfectly.



You are infected with the fly fishing bug and unlike covid,, there is no vaccine, and lockdowns are completely ignored.

Welcome to the fold.
 
For match the hatch fishing, size usually does matter.
And is usually the most important factor for success.

It's not really that big of a deal IMO.

If you're tying sulphers, #14 is the most common size.
And is by far my most used fly.
But there are times when switching to a #12, #16, or even #18 makes a difference.
So, why not tie and carry a few?
 
Canoetripper wrote:
I have fished with #32 flies on 9x tippet
Click to expand...

I can't tell if you are serious or sarcastic with this quote....
 
Much good advice in this thread.

One angle you might consider is season. Generally speaking, when trout fishing, I tend to fish smaller stuff from late summer into fall and even smaller stuff in winter. Water clarity in winter is often very clear. By late winter early spring - think about late Feb to mid March in SCPA, I start fishing bigger nymphs.

Do some rock rolling in different seasons and you will see the different sizes of much of the macro population.


For bass and toothies, I follow something of a different curve using smaller flies in spring and much bigger ones in fall/early winter.
 
In response to Canoe Trippers post my buddies and I have been going down to the Elk River Resort the last four or five years. I used a wooliebugger and dropped down to a # 20 BH Rainbow Warrior (my version). 90% of the fish passed on the bugger and hit the small beadhead. Lou
 
For me, the bigger issue wasn’t how many different sizes, it was how many EACH of each different size…

Regarding sizes, except for terrestrials where I only tie & use a single size of each pattern, I typically carry a FEW sizes of most patterns for hatch matching and depth of drift reasons.

For hatch matching, it is usually the size I expect during a hatch (from experience) and one smaller. If I discover I needed a size bigger, I’ll fix that when I get home but that usually doesn’t happen. For depth of drift reasons, it can be one size bigger and one smaller, especially with beadhead nymphs.

However, I only carry a quantity of six or less of each different size, sometimes only three of sizes that don’t produce well, or I use infrequently. This frees up a LOT of room in my fly boxes!

I keep a replenishment stock of flies back at the car but to be honest I have never, ever needed to walk back for more of a particular hot pattern after losing what I had with me.
 
Miller,

Canoe wasn't being sarcastic about using size 32 flies with 9x tippet. When I lived in WV many years ago, I fished 28, 30 and 32 flies both on top and below the surface with 10x tippet.

I was amazed at the size of fish that ate these small flies. Fishing these small flies isn't for everybody. For me, it was both challenging and fun and yeah I lost a lot of fish. I've caught many fish on the 32s in PA and MD in the past

I don't fish the 32s anymore - eyesight, but I do fish small midges and nymphs throughout the year but not on 10x.

I know the guide very well that Canoe referenced.
 
I've done 24's on 7x but It just wasn't really that important...
 
When things get that small, size becomes less and less critical, imo.
I say skip sizes.

I never fish smaller than 22 anymore. Too hard to tie on. Too hard to see ... especially with my older eyes.

That being said, I think there are definitely situations where super small flies work. I used to do very well on hard-fished waters throwing 24s and 26s midges, black gnats, and such in places like the slow water above the dam at the Playhouse on the Yellow Breeches, or on certain sections of Laurel Hill Creek that used to get hammered.
 
Not to derail the thread but I regularly fish stuff smaller than 20, all the way down to what today is called a 32, but I almost never "see" them. It's more about knowing where my fly landed and watching my leader.

When I see the telltale sipping or just below the surface bulging and can't see what the fish are taking, a tiny midge or midge pupa can be deadly and a hoot to fish.
 
Great stuff thanks to all for contributing. I really enjoy tying, and my 8 year old son is starting to like it too. We have been tying up a storm. I do not like carrying a load when I am out, and want to try to work out of one or 2 boxes. But then I look at what I already have, and what I want to add and start cringing. I think I am going to tie up what I feel like, and if it is too much I can put it in a storage container until I feel the need to change it up.

 
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