How many?

http://www.fieldandstream.com/article_gallery/The-25-Hottest-Flies-of-the-Season/19

How many of the Hottest flies here do you use?

Which is your favorite of the 25?

I use or have used all but six, as for favorites all but six:D

They sure are good looking well tied flies shown and those that I have tied and used are productive…

Steve Molcsan

Len -

Since these are the “best selling” flies and I don’t buy any flies at all, I’m off the hook.

Out of the 25, I do like and use pheasant tail nymphs, and I have used a modified version of the Tungsten Zebra Midge but replaced it with a simpler and more effective midge larva ( for the waters I fish ) and a simplified version of the Copper John.

If F & S did a survey on the “best catching” flies tied by people who tie their own, they might surprise Umpqua with the results.

The problem for the companies that sell flies commercially is that they can’t charge $1.75, or whatever, for a fly that obviously incorporates ten to twenty cents in a hook, thread and materials and takes a few minutes to tie. So “less is more” is anathema to the commercial tiers, and a lot of great flies will never make it to a list of “best selling” flies.

John

I didn’t know how limited my horizons were. I tie and use only five of the twenty-five favorites, the stimulator, crystal bugger, beadhead hare’s ear, pheasant tail and the San Juan worm. Boy, am I humiliated. 8T :slight_smile:

I have caught fish this past year on four of those, and in the past on three others, and on variations of one or two others (for instance, I don’t think a zebra midge needs a tungsten bead, or even A bead). The only one of the 25 I use to any extent is the san juan worm, and that accounts for maybe 3-4% of my fish in a year. And the other three I used, maybe another 1-2%.

Newest and hottest flies? MARKETING!

The flies I use now work just fine, thank you.

San Juan worm, copper john, zebra midge, crystal bugger, pheasant tail nymphs are the only ones I use, but then again I want flies that catch fish not fisherman.

P.S.

There are few that I might make a place for in my “Might as well try it, nothing else seems to be working” fly box.

One, the X-Caddis. Not a lot of hopper action around here and I don’t fish flies with beads. Doesn’t leave a lot, does it?

I have but one of the top 25 sellers, Charlie Craven’s Juju Baetis.

These are the exact same 5 I tie and use from this group.

I must say, though, that the purple Psycho Prince looks AWESOME! I am definitely trying that one out.

For anyone out west, if you haven’t tried it, Lance Egan’s Rainbow Warrior is a pretty renknowned fly for the Provo and Green Rivers in Utah. It’s a killer!

I use 7 of them. The PTN and the X-Caddis are tied for second. The bugger is hands down my favorite fish catcher.

My mainstays always in my box:

DRY… Adams (parachute and Catskills style); Rusty haystacks (#10-#12); Stimulators (#16) Yellow and bright green; Elk hair caddis (#14-#16) tan/brown

WET…Leadwing coachmen (#12-14); Wooly worms (#14) Black and yellow

NYMPHS…GRHE’s (#14-#16) …you just HAVE to have this nymph! I also have a beaded Stonefly pattern (a bit taken here, a bit taken there) I made myself which does well…tied in a #6-#8

STREAMER… Wooly buggers…some large, some small. Like the GRHE, can’t be beat. Black and Olive my best colours.

MIDGES…cdc/elkhair (#18) Black;…This is great for midges and to simulate emergers.

It always is the case that once you reach water, you’ll find that the one thing they’re going for…IS THE ONE THING YOU DON’T HAVE! Not only that, I’VE found, that each year brings a different taste to the fish. One year, stoneflies were hot…EVERYWHERE! Fish haven’t been as eager since that year, I’ve found.
But the above are always in my box. They’re the reliables. They seem to always help everywhere I go.

You’ll find yours, too.

Cheers,
Bad Luck Larry

PS
CDC/elk hair should read size eighteen. Don’t know where that happy face came from!

My “go to” flies are parachute Adams and pheasant tail nymphs.

Also use San Juan worms (more natural brownish-red color), parachute BWO’s, sparkle caddis emerger, and buggers (in brown and olive with grizzly hackle and without the beadhead). I could probably be content with this selection and not use anything else year round.

Since I tie all of these patterns myself (except for the caddis emerger which I plan to try tying this winter), I would also be interested in a similar survey of those who tie their own flies.

This list of 25 flies seems to be pretty much a Western Trout fly list which is not surprising given the source of the data (Umpqua Feather Merchants). I suspect that different sources would offer a VERY different top-twenty-five list. I haven’t checked Orvis but I would bet that a size#16 parachute Adams is somewhere on that list. No offense intend to you Western guys, those are some great flies. 8T :slight_smile:

Blue Dun -

Here’s a link to a thread you might enjoy - http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=19485

John

Here’s a link to a thread you might enjoy - http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=19485

I noticed that the first 11 were dry flies and the other 14 were sub surface flies. I added the list to my favorites, so when I was trying to make some tying decisions this winter, I might choose a couple new ones from the list.

I use one, the wooly bugger. I primarly warm water fly fish and those don’t fill the bill. They could but I have others I prefer.
Wooly bugger
clousers
decievers
other hoppers
sliders
poppers

and the list goes on. Great looking flies, but not for me.

Go catch a fish.

Gary

Crash raises another good point about the Umpqua list of the twenty five favorite flies. Not only is the list very Western in flavor, as I suggested earlier, but it is also a very cold-water/trout list as Crash suggests. There is virtually no representation of saltwater fishing and little to no representation of most warmwater fishing though some of those flies could be fished that way in a pinch. I don’t recall a single Morris foam fly in the top twenty-five. 8T :slight_smile: