What is the worst fly?

[Acristickid]

Now location , flows, confidence and using the right stage of the bug life cycle etc will influence.

But what fly doesn’t work for you?

Used to be dumb when I first started going out west and thinking I needed these real specific flies- one of which was the purple haze fly.

Never worked for me. Purple haze , thumbs down.

What’s your waste of time?

 

[Jessed]

Id say the pheasant tail or hares ear, not because I don't catch fish on them rather they don't seem worth the hype they get. I also never have luck throwing larger stone fly.

 

[Tigereye]

Some of the classic old time attractor wets, though beautiful, are worthless fish catchers in my book. ie parmachene belle, trout fin etc. McGinty sucks for trout but not bad on blue gills or bass.

Though not classic, a Montana stone never really performed for me.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Psycho princes - AKA a prince nymph in purple. Never had lucky with them here in PA, and even used them out West in Wyoming with no success (where they are supposed to work great). Fished them in streams with lots of stoneflies...and the fish preferred something more natural.

 

[timbow]

The worst fly by far is the one that you don't have confidence in.

"Hunt your fly, don't hope your fly" Kelly Galloup

 

[afishinado]

acristickid wrote:
Now location , flows, confidence and using the right stage of the bug life cycle etc will influence.

But what fly doesn’t work for you?

Used to be dumb when I first started going out west and thinking I needed these real specific flies- one of which was the purple haze fly.

Never worked for me. Purple haze , thumbs down.

What’s your waste of time?

Scoffed at the Purple Haze on a trip out west (YNP area).

Nothing happening and the guide cast one in and bang.

I put one on and bang, bang, bang.

I had no purple stuff in my fly tying kit so had to buy some in a fly shop

The Hendrix Experience!....:roll:

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I have a box full of monstrosities that I created until I developed a nymph that works great on PA waters.

I refuse to throw them (monstrosities) away because each creek/river is different. And who knows, maybe that one that never worked here in PA might catch a lunker fish in another state.

 

[Fredrick]

I'm going to get one of these, this thread reminded me of this fabulous sticker

 

[redietz]

timbow wrote:
The worst fly by far is the one that you don't have confidence in.

Amen.

 

[DaveS]

The one with a broken hook point?

Or perhaps the one you paid three fifty for, then dropped in the parking lot and lost before you even tied it on.

 

[shakey]

green weenies and mop flies!

 

[PennypackFlyer]

DaveS: That reminded me of a funny thing that happened to me while fly fishing from my boat. I casted 3 times to the same bass and he/she hit it the same number of times. So, presentation was good, my set was good, my hook non existent It (it was broken). However the fly was a good fly.

 

[pete41]

Former Montanan here saying that the clue to using the Salmon fly nymphs was knowing when to use them AND what size ones to use at that time-they grew considerably during their cycle [1os to 2s or 1/os and when they were crawling towards shore NOTHING was more deadly-Nothing-and no finesse needed-easiest fishing imaginable -that's why they were so popular with the casual types that only fished during what was incorrectly called the salmon fly hatch-

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I've never caught ANYTHING on a sculpin. Ever. No matter how hard I fished it.

But, I chock that up to me. It's not the fly, it's that I suck. I'm just not a streamer guy.

 

[dryflyguy]

Muddler minnow

One of the first flies I learned to tie in my class way back when.
Not very easy to tie IMO
And I did try to fish it some during non hatch periods.
Never caught a thing on it.

 

[ryansheehan]

Fredrick wrote:
I'm going to get one of these, this thread reminded me of this fabulous sticker

Make that two!! That was drilled into my head and I have total belief in it.

 

[ryanh]

The hares ear a pt are my go to 95% of the time. Can't buy a fish with the gree weenie. I think a lot of it is personal confidence in the fly to fish it long enough to get results.

 

[jifigz]

Any fly that takes too long to tie and I lose too soon. I tend to tie and fish easy patterns, though.

I've caught fish on muddler minnows. Actually, the few times I fish them I've caught trout most times so I would say that my catch ratio with in is pretty good.

 

[bigjohn58]

I'm not a muddler minnow fan as well! I bought some back in the day but just have no desire to ever fish one. I'm glad I never wasted my time tying them.

 

[redietz]

jifigz wrote:
I've caught fish on muddler minnows. Actually, the few times I fish them I've caught trout most times so I would say that my catch ratio with in is pretty good.

I used to fish them regularly (quite a bit more than a few times), and would still say my catch ratio is pretty good. A confidence fly for me, in fact.

OTOH, I've never caught a trout on a woolly bugger. I've caught all manner of warm water species on them. It's clearly not the fly, since a lot of other people catch trout on them.