Dry Flies To Carry - A Rationalization Exercise

[Wildfisher]

This has hit the nail on the head.People that tie there own generally carry too many flies.

True, but people who don't tie their own flies will always have to rely on the ingenuity of others and will never be able to develop or modify  patterns to overcome shortcomings they discover whilst fishing.  Bob Wyatt could never have been the fly fisher  he is without also being a thinking  fly tier. It's a package.  Most if not all of the great fly fishers have also been fly tiers.

Too many flies is a trap for sure, but I would still take that over having too few. Believing you only need three flies just shows you have not been fly fishing very long and your experience is limited. When I was a teenager I though all I needed was a Greenwells and  Black Spider, because they caught fish within the limits of my own fishing experience at the time - that is the local burns.   

The reason I know I carry to many flies is because I have carried too many flies.

Even a minimalist like Wyatt carries a few dozen. He's been around long enough to know he needs them to cover more than one or two situations.

http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/wildfisher/index.php/reviews/365-flies-that-catch-fish

[Wildfisher]

Another aspect of this rationalization is I'm only going to carry 3 of each pattern and size.

One for a tree, one to get chewed to bits (hopefully) and one spare. I'll tie up replacements as and when needed.

[bibio1]

As you gain experience I think you realise that pattern is less important and the way it's fished is critical.  I really like emergers and a yellow silk emerger takes some beating.

A fluorescent orange spinner is also essential.

[Rabmax]

As you gain experience I think you realise that pattern is less important and the way it's fished is critical.  I really like emergers and a yellow silk emerger takes some beating.

A fluorescent orange spinner is also essential.

I agree with this for most of the time & found it out big style last season.Fished this pattern most of last season in various colours & sizes when i wasn't french nymphing.


The only thing i changed apart from colour & size was the way i fished it.If i wanted an emerger i spat on the underside of the fly so its bum would sink.If i wanted a high floater or skating sedge fly it got a fumed silica treatment.The orange one done really well in the evenings when they were taking spinners especially after the spit treatment.Still carried my Griffiths Nat's & all the other usual flies but had these on 80% of the season when not nymphing.Cheers

[east wind]

I would promote the parachute adams in a #16 to the regular box. Apart from being very useful in an Iron Blue Dun hatch, it's also a great general purpose fly for lots of other wee stuff.

[haresear]

I like to have a variety of styles and sizes. I'm not too bothered about specific colours, but I'll try to match the hatch as closely as my selection allows. I do feel shape and size to be more important than colour though.

Some emergers with sunk abdomens. Klinks, DHE, loopwing emergers etc. Also a selection of parachutes, comparaduns, CDC olives as dun imitations. As well as those, some beetles/cow dungs - wee fat things with legs does both of those jobs. Some of the beetles are outsize caricatures.

A few very big leggy things come in useful (last year I saw quite a few fish hitting big stoneflies).

Some very small black/dark flies in 16/22 , as I saw a lot of fish taking black gnats and smuts last spring and largely ignoring duns. Some F flies too.

What else....some elk hair caddis and a couple of upside down specials.

I'm sure there are some other things in my two dry fly boxes, but that covers most situations I come across regularly. I do tie flies through the season when I find myself short of something that crops up on the water.

Alex

[Wildfisher]

I do tie flies through the season when I find myself short of something that crops up on the water.

As do I - or I modify patterns by observing shortcomings. This to me is the whole point of fly tying, not sitting  in front of a vice passing the time away on a winter's night.     Observe, evaluate, modify while it's fresh in the mind. This is the engineer in me. 

[Wildfisher]

The question has to be, do you ever find yourself needing a fly you don't have?

Well after realizing 45 years ago that I needed more that 2 flies and therefore 2  flies don't cover it,  it must follow that on at least one occasion I have found myself needing a fly I didn't have.   In fact I can even remember the circumstances when  I first realized it. :lol:

[Wildfisher]

but that box rarely sees the light of day on an average loch trip.

Oh, you're talking about lochs?   Yes, 3 flies are more than enough for loch fishing.   :lol:

[haresear]

 

You always get exceptions, beetles, tiny smuts, ants, and on rivers you do get specific hatches, i do carry an emergency box of exceptions

Well in that case, I suppose I too only carry one or two flies, with a selection of "exceptions"  About a hundred or so

Alex