Dry fly sizes f.or the spring

jkilroy

jkilroy

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Mar 28, 2007
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Hi, I'm getting my inventory up for the spring and I was wondering what the most popular sizes are for sulphur, adams, and Lt cahill for Pa.

I want to keep my fly box to a minimum. Too many choices and I get overwhelmed, and the flies don't get used.
 
For those three you mentioned i'd have to say 12-18 others may feel different but i tried to answer honestly and consider everything you asked.
 
Sizes 12 thru 18 are a good suggestion as mentioned. I don't worry too much about size, I worry more about the pattern being fish inviting.
 
#14 & 16 , sulfurs are usually a size or 2 bigger in the early season , then the dorothea is smaller later on , kinda a hard question to answer , sometimes there are 3 different size sulfurs on the water in the overlap time frame
 
troutslammer.............14 and 16 doesn't cover three different sizes of sulphers.
 
jkilroy wrote:
Hi, I'm getting my inventory up for the spring and I was wondering what the most popular sizes are for sulphur, adams, and Lt cahill for Pa.

I want to keep my fly box to a minimum. Too many choices and I get overwhelmed, and the flies don't get used.




Keeping it simple is a good idea. After some experience, you learn what flies/patterns are most effective for the places you fish, but many FFers never even go that far, and fish “near enough” flies, and catch a whole bunch of fish. To limit the number of patterns, for mayflies at least, think more about size and lightest/darkness of the fly, rather than the exact color.

You mentioned carrying sulphurs and cahills. These flies are very similar (light tan or yellowish with lightish wings) and one is a good substitute for another. Many times on the stream I didn’t ran out of the right size fly and substituted a cahill pattern for a larger sized sulphur and vice versa.

To answer your question about sulphurs, I’ve seen them a legitimate size 12 down to an 18. The larger ones usually hatch earlier in the season, and the smaller ones later. Cahills usually are about a size 12-14. So buy or tie some size 10 - 14 Cahills and 16 - 18 sulphurs to cover both hatches, and you can use a size 10 - 12 cahill pattern for the march brown/gray fox hatch or vice versa.

The adams is a great fly general purpose fly and matches many of the darker hatches It works well to cover the many BWO hatches in the medium to smaller sizes, while the larger sizes would cover the Quill Gordon and Iso hatch among others. I would carry the adams in a size 10 to 20.

Having the exact pattern is not essential to fool a trout the vast majority of the time, just be sure to have the patterns in different sizes. So, buy or tie some light patterns and dark patterns in size 10-20 and you can cover a nearly all mayfly hatches.

Don’t sweat the fly pattern like most FFers do...there are no magic flies or patterns. If you’re going to sweat something, worry more about presentation, stealth, and reading the water, and you’ll be a lot more successful. Good luck.
 
Keeping things to a minimum, I would tie all three of those patterns in #14 and #16
 
exactly what dryflyguy said #14 & 16 , i didn't say it would cover all three , but all three aren't on the water all summer either , the overlap time is not usually that long but 14 & 16 is what i would want in my box if i limited myself but i don't so ....
 
Also if you're tying to hit the sulphur hatch, then you want some rusty spinners too. Just a basic dubbed dry fly in those same sizes with a spent wing. The spinnerfall's will be in the evenings.
 
I haven't done much dry fly fishing the last few years, mostly nymphing which I'm working on. I've done more SMB fishing than anything. For the longest time I have a hard time getting the hook-set on the trout on the dries, and I still need to work on it. My good fly fishing buddy love for trout fishing have been rubbing off on to me, so now it's time to work on dry fly fishing. I tied a bunch of dry's when I first started tying 5 years ago and they weren't the prettiest, so now I'm going thru them, razor bladeing them and re-tieing them. Mostly the comparaduns, replacing them with spunduns, which should be a better floater.

Amazing how much better your tying skills get after time.
 
We had a sulfer here that was a legitame 22 this year. Up here we commonly carry size 14 to 22 for this area, and south of the canyon 14 to 20 would be good, lower than harrisburg a 16 to 24 would be good. just how I see the sulfers hatching in Pa.

Cahill's 12 to 16 and Adams 12 to 18
 
12 - 18 is good for most dries.

However, my advise is to have only 1-2 of each size and when you see that incest on the stream you fish most often catch a bug and compare it to your hooks.

End you fishing early that one day and head home and tie more of that size. This way you'll have more fishing time with less frustrations later on.
 
I fish with my brother a couple times a year on Spring Creek and Fishing Creek. I was still new to FFing last year, and he suggested everything in 14 and 16. It was July, so it was more slate drakes than sulphurs, but I caught my personal best brown on Fishing Creek with a size 16 Adams parachute.
 
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