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Ten Flies to Never Leave Home Without

The Woolly Bugger. This is a go-to trout-producing streamer that can be fished effectively on lakes and rivers.

The Pheasant Tail Nymph. A generic pattern, it represents a wide range of immature mayflies.

The Prince Nymph. This is probably the best all-around attractor nymph pattern you can use.

The Parachute Adams. A generic-looking adult mayfly, when wet its gray body can effectively match many insect species.

The Pale Morning Dun. A midsummer staple on many rivers, east and west, this is the mayfly pattern that matches insects with pale bodies (yellow, pink, cream).

The Copper John. Another attractor nymph, it’s valued as much for its weight and sink-ability as for its flashy profile.

The Elk Hair Caddis. Use this dry fly on any rivers where caddis hatch in large numbers.

‍Black Foam Beetle. It won’t sink, and it's a killer pattern for fish keyed on terrestrials, anywhere.

The Barr Emerger. Pale Morning Dunn or Blue-winged Olive varieties fool the most selective trout.

The Muddler Minnow. It’s a streamer and grasshopper, all in one.

The Story Behind the Copper John

John Barr is one of the most celebrated fly tiers in the world. His Copper John pattern is one of the hottest-selling flies for one good reason: It catches a lot of fish. To that point, I once fished a remote river in Chile with guide Ricardo Ellena. We spotted a fish that wasn’t very interested in dry flies, so we decided to try nymphs. What pattern? I pulled a red size 16 Copper John from my box and offered it up for my guide’s approval.

“Ah, si,” he said. “That is la mosca assasina (the killer fly), el cobre de Juan (the copper of John).”

I later told that story to John Barr and he laughed. Then he told me how that bug came to be.

Seems he was fishing years ago in the late summer, using a hopper-dropper rig. His bottom fly (a Barr Emerger) wasn’t quite getting down to the fish as quickly and efficiently as he wanted it to.

So J. B. went back to his tying bench and whipped up a pattern that was sure to sink.

He made the body out of copper wire, he put a bead head on it, then he added a few buggy accents such as a wing case and tail. By his own admission, this fly was meant to be an anchor that looked like an insect...sort of.

The funny thing is, once he fished that fly, the trout went absolutely nuts over it. Within a few years, it became Umpqua’s hottest-selling fly pattern worldwide. Thousands of dozens are sold every year, in various shades and sizes.

In other words, the hottest fly pattern in the world came to be almost by default, to make other flies work better.

The moral of the story is that weight is always a critical factor in fly selection. Having a fly that gets in the zone is as important, if not more important, than having a fly that looks natural. Having a fly with appeal, and function, is supernatural.

Wax Your Ferrules to Avoid Broken Fly Rods

How many of you take the time to wax your rod ferrules a couple times a year? I know I usually don’t, and I’ve paid the price of broken rods too many times to count.

Finally, after doing that very thing on a tarpon trip a couple weeks ago, I came home and took out every rod I owned and did them all at once. Breaking a rod anytime is a real drag, but when you’re on an expensive trip where you’ve traveled long distances it stings even more.

Here’s the problem: The male and female section ends of rod ferrules can become loose after repeated casting. The ferrule is the part of the rod that joins the sections of the rod together. The hollow (female) portion at the end of a rod section receives the male end of the next section. After time, the male end can slip to the very edge of the female end and when enough pressure is applied (like a hard cast), it can actually crack or “blow out” the blank wall, resulting in a broken rod.

Here’s the solution: Many manufactures should give you a little package of paraffin wax to help keep your rod pieces together when you purchase a rod. Take this wax before the first time you use your rod and apply it to all of the male sides of the ferrules. If the manufacturer doesn’t provide you with any, simply get a candle or chunk of beeswax and gently brush it forward towards the top of the male ferrule, coating the entire piece. If your rod is old and has been used a lot, remember to clean out the female side with a Q-tip or something similar before applying wax.

Now your rod pieces should hold together much longer and tighter, minimizing the chance of a silly rod break.

Use Attractors for Prospecting

One of the best lessons I learned from scuba diving with trout came from watching them react to attractor flies. To set the scene, I had a buddy fishing a two-fly dry-fly rig. The lead fly was a size 12 Stimulator—a big ugly bug that might look like a terrestrial or a stonefly, although its basic mission is, as the name implies, to stimulate a rise. The second fly, trailed 18 inches off the hook shank of the first, was a size 18 Blue-Winged Olive, meant to match the natural baetis flies that pop up on the surface now and again.

As I watched the fish from below the surface, time and time I noticed them swim up to check out the larger fly, then catch view of the smaller fly and go eat it. The lesson is that if you are fishing two small dry flies, you won’t draw their attention as consistently as you would by using an attractor dry fly.

The same applies to nymph fishing, particularly in swift currents or in tinted water. Your first should be a big ugly bug—maybe a hot pink San Juan Worm or a size 14 Flashback Pheasant Tail. Your trailer fly should be something smaller, perhaps a size 18 Barr Emerger. The fish are going to turn on the big bug that attracts their attention. Sometimes they’ll eat it, but usually they’ll pass on it in favor of the smaller fly. And they won’t eat the smaller fly as consistently if you don’t have an attractor bug drawing them in in the first place.

The attractor fly really only works when you are prospecting and when there isn’t a consistent hatch coming off. When you’re fishing a prolific hatch, don’t mess around with attractors.