In Search of the Holy Grail

[Grizzly Wulff]

A question was recently asked on another online site that got me to wondering. The question was, "What are your favorite searching patterns, the flies you tie on when you have no idea or evidence of what the fish are eating?" The site poled a number of guides, authors, and people in the trade and then published the results in three articles, Dry Flies, Streamers, and Nymphs. The top fly in each category was as follows: Dry - Parachute Adams; Streamer - Wooly Bugger; and Nymph - Standard Pheasant Tail.

My question to the forum is, "What is the one fly you would never leave home without to insure you wouldn't get skunked?"

[EdD]

That depends on where I'm leaving home for. My best fly on the Duck River is studiously ignored on the AuSable and probably isn't the best for the Harpeth.

Ed

[Lotech]

I agree with the Wooly Bugger for a streamer and the Standard Pheasant Tail for a nymph, but I tend toward a Royal Coachman for the dry. It's a grand old fly and has served thousands well. Including me.
If you ask me the same question tomorrow, my answer might be different.

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

Stimulator size 16. Because it doesn't need a hatch to be seen by fish on any river that has a population of stone flies. So you can use it mid day, evening, hatch, no hatch, spring, summer.


Steve

[Silver Creek]

The top fly in each category was as follows: Dry - Parachute Adams; Streamer - Wooly Bugger; and Nymph - Standard Pheasant Tail.

My question to the forum is, "What is the one fly you would never leave home without to insure you wouldn't get skunked?"

I would agree with two of those choices as long as the PT was unweighted so it could be fished deep with a split shot or as a floating nymph in the early emerger stage.

I would also not choose the standard parachute adams but tie it with a zelon tail. You can bend the hook of a parachute adams and cut off the tail to change it into a passable Klinkhammer. Then cut off part of the post and you get an earlier stage emerger. You can snip off the post and change it into a passable spinner. You can twist the post and hackle a bit off kilter and get a passable stillborn.

It would be contest for the streamer slot. If it were hopper season, I would choose a Muddler Minnow because it can serve as a streamer and it can pass as a hopper on top. As a pure streamer, I'd choose the wooly bugger.

[fishdog54]

Grizzly Wulff,

I could easily agree with those top 3 picks - anywhere! I could also put an Ausable Wulff in place of the Adams. The Wooly Bugger (for me) is more a nymphing type fly, although you certainly can swim it, so i would migrate more towards the Black Ghost for a searching streamer pattern. Good thread! Thanks Griz.

Best regards, Dave S.

[Bluegill222]

Elk Hair Caddis.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I always have Baillie's Spiders in my fly box. Of the three original colors, black in size 14 is a must have for me.

REE

[Daniel J]

I have had luck with those choices too, but I usually use the BWO instead of the Adams.
BWO's have been my "don't leave home without it" fly so far.

[Silver Creek]

I have had luck with those choices too, but I usually use the BWO instead of the Adams.
BWO's have been my "don't leave home without it" fly so far.

The mention of BWO and Adams in the same sentence reminds me of the OBA, the Olive Bodied Adams as a BWO fly.