wild trout fly box

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i dont know if you guys do this but i thought id share. i started a group on yahoo for wild trout and put this in as a topic.

i have hundreds of flies maybe even a thousand flies. it is actually kinda ridiculous. when i go to a stream like letort i try to carry as many as possible. you never know what those selective browns will be taking or NOT taking. sometimes just having something new will trigger a strike. so i try to be a boy scout and have all my bases covered.

when it comes to less fertile small freestone streams, i have a seperate set of boxes i use. i can narrow the field down alot and have a very productive day.

here are some of the flies in my wild trout box:
10-12 bh olive crystal flash woolly bugger
10-12 bh blk crystal flash woolly bugger
10-12 bh blue flash blk bugger
eggs in red, orange, white and pink.
san jaun worms in pink, red and orange
hares ear in grey, black and olive.
birds nest nymph brown, black and olive.
pheasent tail flashback
prince nymph
zug bug
psycho disco prince nymph
copper johns in copper, blue, red and green

Dry Flies- can be complicated but no reason to make it that way. i
have found by taking a pattern such as the BWO and trying it in basic colors you can be pretty covered to most hatches. imagine
a BWO in brown, black, yellow, any color. just match the wings to the color of the fly. this works great for brookies. they tend not to inspect a fly especially in less fertile, non-pressured freestone streams. now browns in a stream like letort you will need more specfic patterns. it never hurts to carry a few specfic patterns when fishing for brookies. such as the BWO, sulphur or march brown. i hqave seen a ton of march browns on the sepa brookie streams this year.

humpy in various colors. red, yellow, black and adams.

Stimulator- i have found this to be an extremely effective pattern on brookies and browns that are less pressured. i get them with the rubber legs. it is big and bushy so it floats forever. with the legs it really looks like a terrestrial.

Wulff flies- royal, grey and white
royal coachman

adams- a must have! female, parachute, wet, midge, wulff, and way it can be tied. probably the best dry fly ever made. works on all kinds of trout. i even read a story were the New Zealand browns will eat it too!

Caddis- Elk hair, black caddis, brown caddis, yellow sallys. various
patterns!always carry some caddis with you! once i read that 65
percent of a trouts diet is caddis!

terrestrials: any basic terrestrial in the summer is a must. ant,
bettle or hopper.

now the special flies.

a plastic beadhead caddis emerger. lots of flash in the butt end.
signifies the bubbles created by an emerging caddis. i think the fish
just see it faster. great in olive, brown, and grey. browns,
rainbows , brookies, stocked or wild....theyll eat them.

october wulff- this pattern was brought to my attention by mark
snyder on nativebrooktrout.com. i had some made and this fly is
great! heres the link to it.
http://www.nativebrooktrout.com/features/feature1.html

and finally a size 20-24 flash looped winged trico. the body is black and the wings are made of flash. it could be a gnat or any other small black mayfly. but the wings get thier attention and they love it!

do any of you guys do this? a seperate box? also does anyone else make general colored flies. its almost like a midge olive, brown, grey.....etc but with wings.
share some of your special wild trout flies. im always looking for a new weapon. i know i carry alot......but you can never have too many flies!

 

[albatross]

A Godard Caddis or Adams Irresistable are great for brookies. Very durable and float like a cork.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Godard Caddis - theres one i forgot about. thanks!
i use the adams Irresistable all the time. one of my favorites! :-D

i forgot about the yellow drake. man i have caught alot of holdover and wild fish on that thing. floats well too!

dang so many to think about.....also i have had alot of luck on the patriot dry fly for brookies. here are some pics of my favorites.
ignore the small screwdriver holding my vise together! :lol:
also sorry about some blurry pics. my camera sucks and it is hard to take close ups.

http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t76/salvelinusfontinalis/wild%20trout%20flies/

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i know one i havent tried is the Bivisible. has anyone used this on wild trout? how does that one work?

 

[tomgamber]

Yes, but only wild rainbows and cutts out west...its a good fly and easy tie but I don't think a lot of people out here use it. I could be their loss. Let us know.

 

[TheAnglerJosieWales]

Whenever I fish the Letort, I never go without several Griffith's Gnats in sizes from 18-22.

 

[PaulG]

Tom

Many years ago a dear friend of mine turned me on to a Bivisible, it was deadly in a size 18. The fish on Clarks loved them!

Since then if have used it on many streams and have had great sucess with it. Ty some up and give them a try, you won't be sorry!

PaulG

 

[tomgamber]

That's good to hear, Paul. I used them al the time in Idaho and then fished them until I ran out when I moved back here. I'll occasionally tie a few up. I like them. Its the kind of fly that you can tie in a hurry on your steering wheel streamside. And yes, they do work. As someone mentioned in a "drake" thread...last month. because of the two-tone placement of the hackle, they can give the impression aof almost any winged dry fly.

 

[thedude1534]

i would say that midge nymphs and dry's are also essential on wild streams, especially for browns that are picky.

 

[shipnfish2006]

When fishing streams like the Letort, Falling Springs, or Big Spring I NEVER leave home without cress bugs and scuds. Easily the most abundant food source in those streams and there are the most consistent producers hands down when nymphing on those streams.

 

[stonefly]

i think that the best fly for wild trout is the green weenie

 

[ryanh]

And this is why some of you cary over 1000 flies.....

Go back to the Pick 10 flies discussion. If you had a box of only those flies you would consistantly catch fish everywhere. Some of this is overkill, and I am a victim of it too. Thats some of the fun of the sport. But lets face it the origional question was "wild trout box". To me that means mountain streams, not letort and spring creek and such. They are anomolies in the "wild trout" club. Most of your wild trout are under 8 inches, and live in infertile high gradient streams that receive little pressure. They really don't care what it is....they are going to hit it.

 

[shipnfish2006]

I mentioned what I did because sal mentioned the Letort in his original post. When I go in the mountain streams I dont wear a vest I carry everything in a waist pack and I only take 1 small fly box that I have designated specifically for the occassion. It contains green weenies, simple rabbit hair nymphs, pheasant tails, various wulff patterns in about 4-5 different colors, several caddis style flies (normally yellow, olive, and tan), a few parachutes, and then a couple #12 streamers. Almost all of my dry fly patterns have polypropelene(sp?) in them, because the trout will hit anything and really in the long run all I care about is keeping my fly floating, even though to the trout they could care less, it just makes it easier for me to detect strikes.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

its ok ship! i did mention letort. used it as a guage for a stream that i carry everything on. :-D those buggers are smart! too many times they got me changin my flies time after time!
i have three mountain stream fly boxes, they are all compact and have a nice assortment. you just never know. i guess i was looking for a fly that you guys have tucked away, when you have expirated all options. you pull it out and for the most part bam! the wait is over and fish are to hand. i know that sounds to good to be true, but i have a few like that. one is that caddis emerger. man that thing works! :-D

 

[Padraic]

Before my accident, I was on a big Lime Trude kick. I like to tye trudes (i.e. I tye a royal trude rather than a royal wulff) because upright divided wings take longer to tye than a trude style and I think the wing looks like a caddis or emerging mayfly.

I gave the Lime Trude a try because the green weenie is such a hot fly. And because I remembered LaFontaine's theory of attraction, one point of which was to match the fly's color to the available light. The light in a Hemlock forest would be filtered through the green foliage, so a green fly would be most visible. I was doing pretty darn well with it. It floats well and is easy to tye too. So you can toss it into the bushes and under branches. If you lose one every now and again... oh well. Tye on another!