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Three Fly Patterns Imitate
Variety of Forage
Don't fall for the lure of
endless, expensive flies
By Andrew McKean
Fishing and Hunting News
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Flies like the Hare's Ear, Woolly Bugger and a Stimulator mimic a wide variety of Western trout forage. |
It's easy to spend $100 on a little plastic cup of
specialty flies. I know, I've done it.
I've been seduced by the ginger hackle of a Sparkle Dun
and the bronze-wire body of a Brassie. I've been lured
by the shiny mylar wing casing of a Miracle Nymph and
the dainty whiskers of a Goddard Caddis. I've been
obsessed by Madame X's rubber legs. And I've caught
trout on all those flies. But rarely have I caught
enough fish to justify my investment.
The reason, of course, is that very specific imitations
generally work only during a narrow window, either a
season or a time of day when a specific insect is in a
specific stage of its hatch.
Miss that time, or that season, and you might as well be
fishing a Mepps spinner than that $2 fly.
Other patterns are designed for very narrow types of
water. My George's Brownstone stonefly nymphs, for
example, are nearly worthless in a tailwater fishery.
Just as my scuds are ignored by trout in freestone
mountain streams.
If you don't flyfish every day, as I don't, or if you
can't predict just when or where you'll be fishing, as I
can't, you're better off investing in a few generic
patterns rather than many specific ones.
These general imitations, also known as "searching"
patterns, are generally the oldest and simplest flies in
any store.
They can be used in almost any trout stream or lake in
America. They're built to resemble nothing in particular
and everything in general.
And the best of them are durable enough to become
fly-box favorites, if you don't snap them off on a big
fish or a limb.
If you do, chances are good you'll find these patterns
at either a big-box franchise sports shop or a backwoods
ma-and-pa country store.
Here, then, are my picks for the three must-have flies
if you want to appeal to the greatest number of trout in
the greatest number of fisheries. Year-round.
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The Woolly Bugger
The old faithful. There's a reason this is the first fly
pattern that new tiers are taught.
It's a marvel of simplicity, but when it's tied
correctly, it imitates a wide variety of forage. |
Tie it with long hackle and a long tail and it can look
like a leech. Tie it with short hackle and a short tail
and it can look like a stonefly nymph.
It can resemble a crayfish, minnow or even a large
damselfly nymph.
Best colors are black, olive and brown, and I generally
tie mine with a silver beadhead to add some flash and
weight.
It's worth tying a few in attractor colors: purple,
white, ginger and chartreuse.
I always add some mylar tinsel to the tail for extra
visibility. This is a big fly, tied on a 3x long-shank
hook.
I like size 6 and 8, but Buggers as big as size 2 and as
small as 12 will work.
If you're river fishing, try to locate the deeper holes
and runs. Cast into the heads of these spots, let the
Bugger sink — pinch some split shot on your leader to
get deeper — then use a short, twitching retrieve to
give it plenty of action.
The retrieve will depend on the depth and speed of the
water, but generally I like to jerk about 2 inches of
line, then pause two seconds and jerk again.
That undulating action mimics a wounded minnow, or the
curl-and-coast swimming action of a leech.
There's little doubt when your Bugger gets a strike. The
hit is generally sharp and hard, and the fish will run
immediately.
If you're getting lots of strikes but no hook-ups, trim
the tail a little. Those fish are probably just stabbing
at the Bugger; by shortening its profile, you'll get
more consistent hook-ups.
Buggers are equally at home in trout lakes as in rivers.
I generally fish them on moderate-fast sinking line with
a 7-foot, 3x leader (longer, lighter leaders make
casting heavy flies a real headache. Literally).
Make a long cast and let the line sink your fly through
deep water, then start that twitching action.
If you're fishing a weedy lake, use floating line and a
faster retrieve so your fly doesn't get snagged up.
Buggers make good point flies.
Try tying on a chartreuse or purple Woolly Bugger, then
off the bend of the hook, tie a couple feet of lighter
leader, then tie on a small, natural-looking nymph like
a Hare's Ear or a Prince or Pheasant Tail nymph or even
a scud or midge pupa.
The Bugger will get the attention, but if the fish are
finicky, they're more likely to hit the trailing
pattern.
The Stimulator
An appropriately named trout-catcher, this high-floating
dry fly can imitate either a big stonefly, a grasshopper
or a caddisfly.
It's hands-down my favorite summer cutthroat pattern
because it's hard to sink in fast-flowing rivers, it has
a great stillwater profile and it's gaudy enough to
appeal to gullible cutts.
I generally tie them in sizes 12 or 14, but a friend
ties Stimulators in size 18 and gets even more mileage
by fishing them during golden stonefly, cranefly and
green drake hatches.
You can tie them in size 6 or 8 for the big salmonfly
hatch on some Rocky Mountain rivers.
The Stimulator is a tent-wing pattern, tied with bushy
deer hair over a colorful body wrapped with orange, red,
green or yellow yarn.
A short thorax is tied with a contrasting yarn color,
giving the pattern a vivid appearance that aggressive
trout crave.
It has under-body hackle tied in with copper wire to
look like small legs and body segments and a small deer
hair tail that you can tie long to look like a spinner
or short to mimic a caddisfly.
If the Stimulator floats too high, or turns over on its
side, just trim the belly hackle so the fly sits lower
and more upright in the water.
When I'm fishing swift-flowing streams, I'll dope the
wings with floatant and drift it through riffles to
downstream holding water, where trout often come out of
the water on their strike. Or you can cast to grassy
meadows or undercut banks where trout will ambush
grasshoppers and get similar strikes.
In alpine lakes, I'll make a long cast with a
Stimulator, then let the surface rings fade before
twitching it on the calm surface.
If I don't get a strike right away, I'll skip the
Stimulator on the surface, an action that often is too
much for even high-pressure cutts.
Because it's so buoyant, the Stimulator is a good point
fly to use with a dropper.
Tie about 18 inches of leader to the hook of the
Stimulator, then tie on a smaller nymph to the leader.
The dry fly acts as a strike indicator when you get a
tap on the nymph.
The Hare's Ear
An old-timey nymph pattern, the Hare's Ear is designed
to resemble an emerging mayfly.
It has a bushy abdomen tied with dubbing, a bristly tail
and a thorax that looks as though the adult wings are
about to burst forth.
Without getting into the tedious detail of entomology,
the Hare's Ear makes this list because it mimics a wide
variety of immature mayflies — the most ubiquitous
aquatic insect — and it can work every month of the
year.
Tie the Hare's Ear on a size 10 hook and it can resemble
a stonefly nymph or a damselfly nymph.
Tie it with green dubbing and it can resemble a
freshwater shrimp. Tie it with a gold rib and a beadhead
and it works in murky water.
The best Hare's Ears are very bushy and buglike, and
tied with an olive dubbing as well as some sparkle. Most
nymphs are fished in size 16 or 18.
I like drifting them on a long leader and floating line,
with a strike indicator to tell me when they're either
bumping the bottom or a fish is eating them.
I also like fishing the Hare's Ear either with a smaller
nymph dropper or as a dropper off a larger dry fly or
Bugger.
On rivers, drift the nymph through deeper holding water
or glassy pocket water.
On lakes, you can fish it under an indicator and give
the line subtle twitches twice a minute, or you can get
it deep and simply lift it off the bottom periodically,
then let it fall again before twitching again.
Standbys For Good Reason
Once folks have success fly fishing, they're suckers for
every new gadget and pattern the industry coins.
And many of these new flies are worth owning. Fact is, I
almost always try a fancy new mayfly dry or a
complicated stonefly nymph on every trip.
But flyfishing is expensive enough without acquiring a
new favorite pattern on each trip, and time after time,
I find myself snipping off the new pattern and scanning
my fly box for the tattered old favorites.
This trio of flies comes through, on most fly fishing
trips to most waters during most seasons. And that's
testament enough for me.
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