Top 5 summer flies

[supervdl]

What are everyone's top 5 trout flies (nymph and dries) for the next three months? Curious to see what everyone likes to use.

 

[purplewoolly]

Black Beatle (splat), Letort hopper, small (18) tan caddis, ant and pale morning dun.

 

[redietz]

Parachute Black Ant
Black Thread Ant wet
Black Fur Ant wet
Foam Ant
Renegade

 

[jifigz]

Ant dry fly (usually tied with superfine dubbing and done in a parachute style, black being my favorite), woolly bugger, foam beetle, Walt's worm, and probably a pheasant tail. Throw in an elk hair Caddis style dry for honorable mention, especially for brookies..

 

[dryflyguy]

Beetle (not Paul, John, George, or Ringo)

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I gotta go with almost any Stimulator size #14, but if I had to choose one color it would be yellow. Hi-Viz Foam Beetle #14-#18, Black Para Ant #14-#20 (tie some in the winged variety as well), Foam Wasp/Yellow Jacket pattern #14, Golden Retriever #8 for down below.

 

[beeber2]

x-caddis, foam baby hopper, missing link caddis, parachute cinnamon ant, hen and flash soft hackle

 

[Tigereye]

5) Yellow Stimulator #14,
4) Beetle (peacock body, black foam back and Fl. pink Post) #16,
3) Black Foam Ant #18,
2) Slate Drake #12,#14, #16
1) Adams (tied with chartreuse body) #16

I was hesitant about posting the last as it has been unbelievably successful fly for me and something few people fish and the fish dont see much of. I have learned alot here and figured I would pass on the tip. I think fish mistake it for some generic terrestrial.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Foam black beetle -12,14,16
Parachute black ant- 14,16,18
Green Weenie-12,14,16
Craft bead sinking ant- 10,12,14,16
Trico spinners male and female- 24

 

[just_jon]

Royal Wulff
Cress bug
Shenk’s sculpin
Griffiths Gnat
Letort Hopper

 

[SteveG]

Foam beetle, tan cdc caddis, rainbow warrior, renegade, wd-40

 

[Wallyfish]

Black ant -wet
Black ant -dry
Black beatle -dry
WD40 Tan size 20
RS2 tan or olive size 20

 

[Dave_W]

I suppose my top summer flies for trout would be:

-Trico
-Foam Beetle
-Inchworm
-Hornet
-Big black wet fly (night fishing)
(I probably use a foam beetle more than the other ones combined and use these throughout the autumn months as well)

For river smallies in summer:

-Yellow popper
-Stonecat
-Crayfish
-Hellgrammite

 

[LetortAngler]

Fishing Terrestrials and Caddis is generally the order of the day come July. PMX, Para-Ants, Wet-Ant, Crowe/Foam Beetle, Letort Hopper/Cricket, X-Caddis and the Elk Hair.

Early morning hatch of Trico requires a few white and black bodied spinner patterns (and sunken).

Pheasant Tails, Zebras, Cress Bugs, and Buggers for fishing downstairs.

 

[larkmark]

Interesting reading the selections here.
One of my summer favorites is the green weenie with a wet ant trailer. Most times the fish take the wet ant but I feel the green weenie gets their attention. I fish it on a regular dry fly leader trimmed back to 4 or 5x. No indicator. Throw it along edges and in pockets. Super combo for me in low and clear summer conditions. I usually see a white mouth as the fish takes the fly. Try it.

 

[Prospector]

Tigereye wrote:
5) Yellow Stimulator #14,
4) Beetle (peacock body, black foam back and Fl. pink Post) #16,
3) Black Foam Ant #18,
2) Slate Drake #12,#14, #16
1) Adams (tied with chartreuse body) #16

I was hesitant about posting the last as it has been unbelievably successful fly for me and something few people fish and the fish dont see much of. I have learned alot here and figured I would pass on the tip. I think fish mistake it for some generic terrestrial.

There was a fellow I became acquainted with when I was a kid and he was an old man, but we both fished Kettle in early June. He would pass on his “best fly of the week” and many times it was a yellow bodied adams. So your fly is pretty commonly used in the northern tier, but as you said not many tie that style because its too involved. One week his “best” was a pink bodied Adams with a yellow egg sac. Try that one.

 

[Tigereye]

Funny you mention that because 30 + years ago a friend and I spent a week at Ole Bull SP fishing the Kettle. We were just learning to fly fish and tie flies. The local ranger stopped by and we got to talking. I didn't know one fly from another and my buddy knew about as much. The ranger told us about the yellow bodied adams and the "bright green" adams, and gave use one each to copy. We tied some up and caught fish the rest of the week. If I recall our flies looked like $#!t, but they worked. My buddy landed a 20 inch rainbow. It was delicious.


Well I still pack those two flies but the green one sees far more use. I call it the Adam's Apple. Because the color is a bright apple green.

Wonder if the Pink Bodied Adams is a Hendrickson clone?

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[troutbert]

Prospector wrote:

Tigereye wrote:
5) Yellow Stimulator #14,
4) Beetle (peacock body, black foam back and Fl. pink Post) #16,
3) Black Foam Ant #18,
2) Slate Drake #12,#14, #16
1) Adams (tied with chartreuse body) #16

I was hesitant about posting the last as it has been unbelievably successful fly for me and something few people fish and the fish dont see much of. I have learned alot here and figured I would pass on the tip. I think fish mistake it for some generic terrestrial.

There was a fellow I became acquainted with when I was a kid and he was an old man, but we both fished Kettle in early June. He would pass on his “best fly of the week” and many times it was a yellow bodied adams. So your fly is pretty commonly used in the northern tier, but as you said not many tie that style because its too involved. One week his “best” was a pink bodied Adams with a yellow egg sac. Try that one.

Over the years I've heard various experienced flyfishers recommend the Yellow Adams.

I tie something very similar, but tie it without wings.

You can call this a Variant or "Guide Tie" if you like, rather than just the lazy way. ;-)

And instead of using dark ginger hackle I use light ginger, because it seems to be more appropriate with the yellow body.

There are a lot of light colored bugs around, both mayflies and stonefies, so it makes a good general imitation of "yaller" bugs.

A Stimulator with a yellow body is also a killer fly late spring through summer and into fall. I use size 14 the most, by far. But also use size 16 sometimes. And size 12 when the water is really up.

 

[shakey]

stewart's black spider,glassy spider,tup's indispensable,cow dung,royal coachman, all color soft hackles and ants.

an orange ant can help when nothing else works.fish it dry,then pull it under,

beetles,ants ,hoppers,stimmies for dry.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I like to use a spider or top water popper for the most part. I get lots of sunnies and a few bass......and every once in a while a brown will hit it.