That was a good article by Tom Travis . I enjoyed the fact that his nymphing stratgies mirrored mine to some extent. It got me thinking as to how some patterns that I tie and use the most would be cassified.

IMITATIVE PATTERNS: Baetis nymphs and Midge larva came to my mind. Some of the Tail waters I fish have very selective (at times) fish in them. It seems to me that the fly shops spend a whole lot of time and effort trying to imitate these two organisms with a huge selection of flys.
The baetis patterns can range from PTnymphs tied in an array of colors to complicated epoxyed back multi ingredient, flys, ranging in sizes from 26 to 14.
Midge larva can be something as simple as a thread midge to a JuJu midge as tied by Charlie Craven.
I am guilty of carrying alot of different patterns for both of these organisms, but in my defense both of these organisms are in the river and are a staple in the trouts diet year round. Even on the Freestone rivers.

SEARCHING PATTERNS: Soft Hackle came to my mind immediately when the term "Searching Pattern " is referred.
I fish the SH as a nymph probably 75% of the time, but when I surmise the fish have raised in the water column, the SH is usually the ticket for finding feeding trout.

ATTRACTOR PATTERNS: Egg Pattern! Yep you can argue that it's not a fly, nymph, or that it even has a place in a "fly" fishers box, but for me, it's the all time attractor fly. I tie them in sizes 20 to 12, and fish them year round. I really do believe that it attracts fish to look at my nymphing setup, and the fish take the Imitative and Searching patterns after they have taken the initial look at the egg.