I an getting a friend of mine started in fly fishing and told him I would tie some flies for him. I am going to tie 6 patterns for trout and then another 6 for bluegill. What are your 6 go to flies for trout. What are your 6 go to flies for bluegill?
Briminators for bream…no doubt. Trout…I like an olive woolly bugger.
I would tie a #14 Adams, #14 elk hair caddis, #12 brown bi-visible, #18 fox squirrel nymph, and #10 yellow and grouse soft hackle for trout with #10 rubber leg spiders in yellow and black, #12 beadhead fox squirrel nymph, #10 yellow and grouse soft hackle and a #8 gurgler for bluegills. Those are pretty much what I have handed beginners in Michigan and had them catch fish.
For TROUT:
- Gold Ribbed Hares Ear
- Parachute Adams
- San Juan Worm
- Zebra Midge
- Elk Hair Caddis
- Hopper
…
whatever 6 flies you tie for trout, tie 6 more for bluegills.
thanks he will enjoy fly fishing and getting some free flies helps the experience. When i started my grandpa gave me a bunch of flies along with an old fenwick 6 weight to start out with. Anything to introduce another into the sport
OK, here’s mine.
Trout
#14 Elk Hair Caddis
#16 Sulfur LTD
#18 BWO LTD
#14 Huntingdon March Brown
#18 LBG Caddis Worm
#14 Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph
Bluegill
#12 Elk Hair Caddis
#10 Foam Butt Caddis
#10 Tossed Salad
#14 Briar Creek Wet
#12 Gold Ribbed Hares Ear
#12 Micro Bugger (Black)
:shock:
…
Trout:
#14 Parachute Adams, Easy to see, effective on water fast & slow, in a variety of conditions & hatches.
#16 Elk Hair Caddis, Works for nearly any caddis hatch, drifted or skated (or even drowned)
#20 Griffiths Gnat, dry or wet, works for those thousands of different species of bug too small to identify
#14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle, All purpose nymph for any occasion.
#8 Woolly Bugger in black, white, and olive…because I cant go trouting without em lol
Gills:
Anything you tied for the trout will work. Also:
#14 Foam Beetle
#10 Popper
Really, gills aren’t picky. Find em and get their attention. They’ll handle the rest. 
Hi CDPaul,
Trout:
- #16 elk hair caddis
- #14 pheasant tail
- #12 golden stone nymph tied with Ronn Lucas’ Irridescent Dubbing
- #14 yellow stimulator
- #14 gray Wulff
- #16 pale evening dun Wulff
Bluegills:
- #12 chartreuse bluegill spider
- #12 olive and orange (hackeless woolly bugger, orange tail, olive body, small bead head)
- #12 gold ribbed hare’s eaf
- #14 Griffeths gnat
- #12 gray hackle peacock
- #14 gold ribbed hare’s ear (weighted)
VMABuck,
The Tossed Salad began as a trout fly/desperation fly for a Spring Creek on Ft Lewis WA about 17yrs ago. After getting skunked one evening, I went home and tied up something with rubber legs that would be durable for weeds. When I got to the stream, my buddy saw it and laughed asking what the heck it was called. I said…the tossed salad. It caught fish that whole evenng. Simple…ugly…and it catches fish. Great for trout, smallmouth…and bluegills and bass love it.
Note: the pic included is a fished fly out of my panfish box. The original trout pattern was tid with green antron dubbing, not the antron yarn body as shown. And when newly tied, the wing is tied in a 180deg fan like an Elk-Hair Caddis pattern.
Trout:
Bugger
PT
Hare’s Ear
Prince
Dennis Potter’s Opal and Elk, a better EHC
Parachute Adams
Look at this week’s article on CA glue foam flies.
Come March-April when the bass are on the beds or April-May when the bluegill are on the beds, each of the patterns shown will catch all you want.
These are excellent patterns for beginners to try.
- Adams-one set about 14 and the other a step-down smaller
- Wooly bugger black, white, brown or olive depending on what produces best in your area-or two of like, each color so you can imitate pretty much everything you might have left out.
3.forgot the name of the wet-red yarn butt, peacock herl body, partridge collar-supposed to be the “best wet for the west” (it’s from a very old pattern book.) - EHC
- CZ nymph to imitate everything shrimpy
- many sizes of PT nymphs
For bluegills:
- bead head hares ear (this way you can use it for trout too)
- some style of dragonfly larvae
- foam cricket
- the Grey Ugly!
- popper that looks like a little frog
- mosquito larvae emerger
thanks everyone for the help. What is the recipe for the tossed salad and the fox squirrel nymph?
- Flashback Bead Head Pheasant Tail
2.Zebra Midge
3.BH Brassie
4.Rubberleg Stonefly Nymph
5.Parachute Adams
6.Shop Vac
Recipe for the Tossed Salad is as follows: Mustad 94831 #10 hook, 1/4" foam with folded head, Green Antron dubbed body, chartreuse rubber legs, Olive deer hair wing.
This is interesting but I think it really depends on where most of the fishing will be done. A lot of those lists don’t have any midges. You can’t get by here in Arkansas without some sort of midges. I would say to look at the river, determine the food source, then pick some patterns from there.
south fork salley
super x
soft hackled streamer (olive/black)
krystal koachman
bb Leech
the substitute
Sadly, I don’t have any trout favorites yet.
I copied my response below from a bluegill fly pattern post in the Warmwater forum:
-Gurgle-Pop for topwater
-Boa Yarn Leeches (yellow, orange, black, brown, white…all good colors). I tie these on a nymph or streamer hook, and fish them unweighted most of the time.
-SHWAPF…(dark-colored chenille body w/ Krystal Flash back/wing is my favorite color combo. But pink-and-white is an excellent choice right at ice-out when the waters are cold and muddy)
-size 10 Craft Fur Clouser Deep Minnow tied with small barbell or bead-chain eyes (white w/ red Krystal Flash is a favorite combo, but other colors work)
-Woolly Buggers, both with and w/o hackle…Purple is a really good color, but again, other colors work well too.
-modified Cap Spiders…I use a small glass beadhead instead of a jighead. This allows the fly to sink more slowly, which can be an excellent presentation.
-Mohair Leeches…I like brown or reddish brown with a bit of black rabbit fur as a tail.