Offseason: The Tying Bench
I love fishing during the winter. I love being alone on a stretch of stream, battling the elements, chipping ice out of the eyes of my rod. Despite all that I simply don’t fish as hard during the winter as I do during the rest of the year. Call me lazy or particularly susceptible to the seasonal malaise that comes with short days but I gradually spend fewer days on the water the shorter the days get.
Which means more time tying flies and restocking all the patterns I lost in trees and logs this year. This offseason I’m going to spend some more time putting some of my knowledge of fly fishing ( some of it might be knowledge, a lot of it might just be preference) into writing so other people can have it. No promises on what that content might look like but I figured I might start by answering one of the most common questions I get, starting with: What are your favorite flies?
This is a loaded question but one i’m always happy to ramble on about. The possible responses are vast. Are we talking about trout flies? Bass? Fallfish? Striper? Ornamental patterns I stick in my hat so It looks like I know what i’m doing?
Tonight I thought I would start small and just give you fine folks my top 5 flies for Trout fishing in the Mid-Atlantic. Understand that these are my favorite flies and patterns I find to be very effective, not necessarily the flies that will catch you the most fish. Here they are in reverse order:
5. Chubby Chernobyl: It’s big, it’s beautiful and it’s pretty much unsinkable. I’m not sure at what point I started hauling this fly around but I love using it because frankly it’s just kind of hassle free. I fish it in a number of sizes and have caught a number of species on it. The thing I like best though is that I can use it as my top fly on a dry dropper rig ( when you suspend a nymph below a dry fly) and it won’t sink. Sure it’s not the stealthiest dry fly out there but in terms of durability and productivity it’s hard to beat, especially during the summer months when trout might be keying on terrestrials.
4. Adams Parachute: Another great dry fly that I like to fish almost all year. It doesn’t imitate anything specifically but i’ve found that it matches a number of hatches and works equally well when there isn’t a hatch and you’re trying to get a trout to rise. I find the parachute Adams to be more effective than the regular Adams fly but that might just be preference. I have found that the superfine dubbing used to make the body can take on some water and cause the fly to sink a bit. However, while that may be annoying to you the trout don’t seem to mind it riding a little low in the water. It may also be my favorite fly to use for Brook Trout on small mountain streams.
3. A Cone Head Wooly Bugger: One of the simplest flies to tie, the Wooly Bugger just works. It works for, bass, trout, panfish, fallfish, carp… you name it you can probably catch it on a Wooly Bugger. For folks new to the sport being able to manage the swing and retrieve of a Wooly Bugger sets you up for success in many types of fishing. I used to mostly only use streamers when the water was on the high side, but I use small Wooly Buggers in pocket water all the time now. You can fish them like a nymph and then retrieve them like you would any streamer. It’s a great fly to get started with so make sure you always have a few in your box (because you will lose them on an underwater log). I specify a cone head because I like the way they sink and retrieve but that’s entirely up to you. Olive and Black are my colors, although I’ve been known to dabble in a brown wooly bugger on occasion.
2. A Prince Nymph: I am sort of open about the fact that I don’t love nymph fishing. Not for any sort of snobby fly fishing reasoning, it’s just not my favorite thing to do while standing in a river. However, the prince nymph is the first nymph I go to if I have to nymph fish and it almost always works. I really enjoy tying them and they just always seem to save the day after 4 hours without fish. I’ll do a whole other blog on my approach to nymph fishing, but for the moment just know that usually the Prince Nymph is the first thing i’m tying on.
A Royal Stimulator: As of the last year or two the Royal Stimulator has become my favorite dry fly overall. It can be a little bulky for some of your spookier streams where trout are extra wary, but in general the Royal Stimulator is just a fun fly to fish with. It works to imitate terrestrials really well and is durable enough to use in a dry dropper rig. My #1 dry fly used to be an Elk Hair Caddis but I have found that a royal stimulator in a variety of sizes can easily do the job of a caddis fly (someone is going to fight me over that statement and I don’t care). Yeah, it’s great, it works, it’s a pain to tie ( so find a local fly tier to make you a few) and looks great stuck in the ceiling of your car so EEEEVERYONE can know you’re a fly angler.
As always, feel free to reach out with questions at Info@fishercat.co!