PennKev wrote:
redietz wrote:
Although there's nothing I would argue with on the list, the "dozen" is 26 different flies, or 84 if you count all the sizes (and that's assuming you only count even sizes.)
I think you could safely do without the the largest size of each dry and nymph listed and perhaps the next largest size also. For example, I don't think I've ever used a #10 for a sulfur hatch, or even a #12 and a #10 EHC is a dang big caddis.
It also doesn't specify style of tying ("Catskill", parachute, or comparadun -- I carry all three for sulfurs, e.g.).
The traditional Catskill style should be assumed IMO. At any rate a raw beginner will have none of the various styles, so simply having any of them in the appropriate size will greatly improve their situation.
However, just listing "sulfur" among more specific names like Adams and EHC is pretty vague.
A good list, but it doesn't really narrow down the number of flies the beginner should carry, especially since he would want several of each.
I dunno. You could strip that list down to bare bones and still be an effective fisherman. I could easily make do with only one size of most of those flies and eliminate some color variations. However, subsurface caddis imitations are underrepresented on that list. A tan or olive #16 sparkle pupa and a green larva imitation would round out the list for me.
On the other hand there are a ton of flies I fish the heck out of that aren't on that list, like Copper Johns and Prince nymphs. Regardless, the flies from that list are going to catch at least some fish most of the time and produce decent results most of the time.
Kev
The point of the whole fly selection is to simplify it for a complete beginner. As you know, one of the first things (after the beginning FFer tried to figure out which rod, reel and line to buy :roll
🙂 is walking over to the fly bins and seeing 10's of thousands of flies sitting there. Almost no one has the money and if they did, the knowledge to select all the most useful patterns to begin FFing.
I used the KISS principle to help beginners get started.
Size > Shape > Color
No need to know the names of the flies hatching or even the names of the flies in your box.
When a newbie FFer asked which flies should I use, I would often tell them....if you see a fish taking small dark fly on the water......use a small dark fly!
Further I let them know with dries you have up-wing flies, to imitate insects that look like little sailboats on the water (aka mayflies) and downwing flies (aka caddis or stoneflies) plus land based insects that fall in the water (aka terrestrials)
Specifically I chose the sulfur pattern as the light colored mayfly in the selection, so if a beginner sees a light colored fly with wings like a sailboat they can select the light colored fly in their fly box. Plus sulphurs are the most common mayfly found in PA streams. The sulphur pattern can be use to imitate all light colored mayflies like cahills, march browns, female hendricksons, etc. That's why I recommend different sizes.
I chose the adams pattern because it has caught a gagillion fish, and can be used for matching dark sailboat-winged flies. So the adams can match BWOs, the ISOs, Quill Gordons and all other darker colored mayflies.
If you see a light colored downwing fly without sailboat wings (downwing) use that fly. That would be the Elk hair Caddis. It can match many caddis hatches as well as stonefly hatches. And the larger sizes of EHC can match golden stones or even grasshoppers on the water.
Anyway, boiling things down to light and dark and up-wing or down-wing flies in different sizes simplifies the dry fly selection puzzle in the fly shop as well as on the stream.
Hell, if I'm out there and don't have the "right" pattern, I pretty much do the same thing > size > shape > color.....the fish don't seem to mind most times.
