One fly to rule them all....

[Sagittarius62]

...One fly to find them.
One fly to hook them all.
And to my fly line bind them.

From Tolkien, via Buddy Sanders

For the past 4 weeks it has been Deer Hair Caddis from 10 to 16. Each time I go out I tie one on thinking "well it worked last time might as well start where I left off". I have yet to need another dry fly. They are taking during dead drift, and sometimes when it first gets dunked on the swing. I guess the flies just look buggy enough in general, or the fish are conditioned to eat caddis flies whenever they can get one. I have only fished once during visible caddis activity, and they were just about 10 feet above the stream, not touching down that I could see. My other trips have not seen any caddis activity other than my fake one.

[Gramps]

I have better luck with an Adams. It would be the fly i'd pick if I had to have only one.

[Sagittarius62]

I have read that the Adams is an excellent all around mayfly pattern. I just learned how to tie the parachute version, and tied a few for a friend who never could get the hang of tying them. I didn't keep any for myself though. I need to fix that tonight.

[Gramps]

It works pretty good for caddis too. Or just a searching fly.

[Jerry]

The Para Adams is one of my favorite flys.
I've caught fish on it when nothing seemed to be happening.
I think the parachute wound hackle makes the fly look buggy to a fish.
Confidence in a fly is one of the keys to catching fish IMO.

[mr. blur]

much as I like the p adams, my one fly would be a griffith's gnat.

[Sagittarius62]

I don't even own any hooks small enough to tie the Griffiths Gnat. I keep looking at it in a Skip Morris' book, and thinking about trying a few, but I have enough trouble with 16s much less 24 and smaller. I must say though that there ALWAYS seem to be tiny flies flitting around the water's surface when I fish, and the trout must be eating them.

[matt26]

hares ear size 16

[JZ]

cdc ant, man, they work good

[flyandtie]

For me lately it has been a bead head pheasant tail