I mean which patterns do you bring? Just a few or a ton? I have absolute confidence on my top-3, I can flyfish every river with them but I find anglers with incredible variations…
Regards
Rocketfish
I fish a lot of streamers. Probably have more than a two dozen different patterns in my fly boxes. If we exclude wooly buggers and Spey/Salmon/Steelhead etc. flies (which may/may not be separate categories) from the streamer category, then depending on the situation, my top three streamers based on fish I’ve actually caught would be:
- Muddler Minnow (and all variations)
- Olive Matuka
- Zonker/Bunny (and all similar types)
[This message has been edited by GusG (edited 04 February 2006).]
Rocketfish,
I fish streamers about 70% of the time. I only bring about 1 dozen different patterns. My top three are:
- Olive Conehead Combo (see Fly of the Week archives)
- Bunny Baitfish (also in Fly of the Week)
- Bead Head Wooly Bugger (black marabou tail, peacock herl body, and dark dun hackle)
Regards,
Alberto
I only carry a few usually. The top three for me are:
- Gray Ghost
- Olive Woolly Bugger
- Light Spruce
“If we carry purism to it’s logical conclusion, to do it right you’d have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each.”
~John Gierach
On my local rivers, streamers work very well so I carry a lot of them. I tend not to use them everywhere else though. Here’s a few of my favorites:
Gray Ghost
Light Spruce
Warden’s Worry
Supervisor
Black/Olive Wooly Bugger
[url=http://s02.picshome.com/a8c/icedtea1sm.jpg:9c458]Iced Tea[/url:9c458] (my own design)
Gadabout, Is that white over olive over black bucktail on the wing of the Ice Tea; and is that gold antron for the tag? Nice looking fly! I’ve been going with; Mickey Finn, Olive Muddler (w dubbed body), and a variation of the Grey Ghost (substituting a ringneck pheasant rump feather for the silver pheasant cheek and yellow streamer hackle wing) as we have more perch than smelt as forage in most local ponds I fish. I can’t count Wooly Buggers or I go over the three count- but I carry them too!
[This message has been edited by backbeach (edited 05 February 2006).]
Woolly Bugger
Rabbit Strip Leech
Clouser Minnow
I do vary the sizes and colors but these are my primaries for all species.
Randy Knapp
backbeach,
Thanks for the comments, but I think you may need to adjust your monitor LOL! The bucktail colors are white, yellow and brown. The tag is golden yellow floss. Basically the same tie as a Black-Nose Dace or Mickey Finn, with different colors.
Thanks Gadabout, Color on monitor is ok, I just can’t mix cough syrup and Irish coffee ever again- (what a lightweight!). I’ve been sick for days and can hardly tie- I put my head down and the nose runs like a seive and I start coughing. This ain’t helping the cabin fever either… Standing waist deep in ice water wasn’t a viable option for that matter even though we got a rare warm, windless February day here. Thanks for clarifying the recipe though. Nice tie.
“Knowledge is knowing, wisdom is understanding”
For trout, these work for me:
Olive grizzly matuka (or cheap indian neck works fine)
rabbit stripper with crosscut collar and gold bead head
Olive or brown crystal bugger with gold bead head
Here in North Western Montana we only need a Muddler, size 6 or so. But it would be boring to only carry plain old Muddlers. What would we do with 30 pocket vests?? There are endless variations of Muddlers, seems like any streamer with a clipped deer hair head or a deer hair bullet head is some sort of a Muddler. The standard Bailey style works just fine. Marabout Muddlers also work just fine, Yellow and White. For he last 10 years or so I have been tying Thunder Creek Streamers, the Rainbow Trout pattern is best around here. Also had good luck on the Fire Hole R. in YNP with a Rainbow Trout Thunder Creek Streamer.
You’ll catch few fish in BlueBird weather, ya gotta suffer a little to fish good.
Jim Johnson
Rocketfish,
My Fav’s have been based on what forage fish I mostly see in my waters…I don’t carry many standard pattern’s, In Ther Standard fourms.
As I find the colorations to be mostly to bright/dark/un-natural or off in some way…I like tinking with existing pattern’s to get what I want from them…I don’t think it changes any of their names or general designs…Does anyone else “tweak” streamers to their personal liking?
I carry loads of streamers, but none more effective than 2-3" strips of chamois I cut into various shapes and tie (badly) and glue (sloppily) onto #18 - 8 hooks.
One river I fish I only carry one fly, a size six mickyfinn.
Normally I carry and use many different bucktails and streamers.
Here in the northeast one very popular fly not mentioned is the hornberg. This may be because some folks think of it as a wet fly, some fish it dry, others as a streamer. What ever it is,it works.
“The man who knows all about trout does not exist,
although you have probably met him”
Samuel G. Camp 1911
-
Rattlesnakes (Olive/Gold Bead or Black/Red Glass Bead)
-
Wooley Sculpin (Black/Gold Fleck)
-
Gold Bead Olive Carey Bugger
These are my current Go-To streamers, especially when going after the trophies !!!