How many dry fly patterns?

[larkmark]

Adams in several sizes. A generic CDC olive in several sizes down to 22. Deer hair caddis 16 and 18, Generic CDC sulfurs and some kind of sulfur emerger 16 and 18. Spinners in several sizes including large ones if you fish drakes,Green Drakes if you fish them-Catskill style, March Browns-regular Catskill style and Griffith Gnats in sizes from 16 down to 22. Also tricos. Ants and beetles. Honestly a deer hair caddis is on my dry fly rod more than anything. Next would be a gnat.

 

[larkmark]

Yeah soft hackles are good.

 

[Prospector]

Dave_W wrote:

LongLineRelease wrote:
How many dry fly patterns to you typically carry for major hatches and what are they?

I'm not sure off the top of my mind - however, it's a lot - perhaps 20 different patterns(?). I carry a lot of flies.

Some folks arrange their fly boxes seasonally so don't typically have sulfurs in the fall or terrestrials in spring. I carry my trout flies all year and have patterns for all the major PA hatches and some generic stuff; also a lot of terrestrials which aren't typically associated with hatches but often work well during hatches (and some terrestrials "hatch" - think of flying ants).

I’m the same as Dave. I carry all of my dries all year. 1 box of mayflies, 1 box of Caddis, 1 box of terrestrials/midges/spinners. My mayflies are split between sparkle dun (tied with Xelon, whatever the spelling is for material Blue Ribbon sells) and thorax styles.

 

[jbewley]

The Adams is one I am never without. For me, it has always produced.

Jim

 

[Sylvaneous]

For mayflies, I have usually 2, a comparadun and a snow shoe hare 'emerger': just tied on a pupa hook with a snow shoe hare comparadun wing and some dark brown antron for a shuck. This one works best, usually. For spinners, I usually have 1 pattern, but sometime I use snow shoe again for wings. It works oddly well. For caddis, I have 1. Either CDC wing or snow shoe hare on a dubbed body. Pale antron shuck if needed. Nothing else. If you want to call it a dry, I use a floating nymph which, as it sounds, it just rabbit dubbing around a pupa hook with the aforementioned snow shoe hare but this time more coming out of the front instead of more where the wing should be. It hangs right in the water, usually, and the 'wing' looks like an adult coming out of the shuck.
I do other stuff for the drakes above size 10.

Syl

 

[Billems]

Adams, Adams paracute, sparkle duns (olive, brown, yellow), Griffiths gnat, Craig Mathew's caddis emerger, Chucks caddis variant, trike spinner, grasshopper and beatle. I'm a wet fly aficionado and rarely fish with traditional nymphs. If I was allowed only three flies, they'd be an adams, a partridge and orange, and a muddler. You can cover a lot of trout fishing with those three.

 

[flyguyfishing]

I prefer Catskills style mayflies. Certainly spinners - poly. 2 dry fly variations.

Caddis, I normally have several different styles. I prefer elk. Fish seem to be more particular about how they are eating Caddis, so I carry more variations. 3-4 dry fly variations.

 

[tomgamber]

I'm sure this varies whether you tie or buy or both but I typically cary the same arsenal of flies every day, but if I'm, say, going to the Jam in May, where I'm gonna see lots of sulfur, drakes (maybe), March Browns or something obscure that someone mentions in an early recon trip, I'll have an extra half dozen of those and whatever those are.

 

[jifigz]

The second thread recently revived from the dead!

Still the same for me as it was in 2019 when I first replied: some varying parachute styles and colors, with some other junk thrown in.

 

[JimNovo]

I guess I would fall into the group that carries a lot of patterns. Reasons:
1. As per Bamboozles hypothesis, I am a new fly fisherman (starting year 5) so I’m still learning what works. However, I’ve had times when it took 5 patterns for the fish to eat.
2. I love to tie my own flies so experimenting at the vise leads to more flies patterns in the boxes. I’m inspired by what I see in this forum, in books and online. If it looks buggy and I can tie it, a few will go into the box.
3. Too many years as a scientist to not love experimenting. Now my challenge when facing a rising fish is do I try something new and risk putting the fish down or go with a proven favorite?

 

[JeffK]

I have early spring and late spring boxes with mixed caddis and mayfly dries. Redo them every few years to keep up. Mostly early dries are darker and later season ones are lighter. Then I have separate small boxes for sulphurs, small olives, and tricos since those are hatches I may go out just for that hatch and don't have to have a bunch of larger boxes with me.

Been doing this for 55 years so I have gone through phases: classic Catskill style; Comparadun/Sparkle Dun; Snowshoe hare; CDC ; cripples etc. One late spring I only fished parachute light Cahill and tan sparkle dun in sizes from 16 to 12 and didn't seem to catch any fewer fish than when I used dozens. But what is the fun in that. Some days fishing the old favorites is comfortable, other days I want to try something new. I can't do the same thing all the time and enjoy it.

 

[5footfenwick]

Just one of everything on the hatch chart for every single month for that particular streams will put you only one fly short of what you need 🙂 because you know when you get there that hatch that actually happens will be the one fly you don’t have. But don’t worry you can run to a fly shop and stock up just in time to get back to the creek to watch that hatch end and something else start that you don’t have. That’s what makes it so fun!

 

[shakey]

I try not to use a dry unless I have to, and sometimes when they won’t cooperate
with wets, you need either an ant or an inchworm .

So , for me, essential dries would be
Ants, inchworm, light and dark catskill-ish Cahills and EHC.