Basic Fly Patterns for Fly Fishing

Most basic fly patterns for fly fishing fit into four categories: nymphs, wet flies, dry flies, and streamers/bucktails. When you visit a fly shop or browse through a mail-order catalog you will usually find the flies displayed or listed under these general groups.

Nymphs & Wet Flies

Nymphs and wet flies represent the immature life stages of insects such as mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and others. These flies are fished below the water's surface, and usually work best just prior to a hatch of water-born insects, when the nymphs and pupae that they represent become active.

Some special nymphs that imitate the emerging adult insect are fished just below or in the water's surface film. Called "emergers", these flies are half wet and half dry, but because they don't float on top of the surface film, we'll include them with the nymphs and wet flies.

Dry Flies

Dry flies float on the water's surface, and they imitate a wide range of foods, including adult mayflies, caddisflies, midges, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, and many others. The magic of seeing a trout, bass, or panfish take a dry fly floating on the surface of the water provides the most exciting appeal of fly fishing. Deer-hair bass bugs and poppers, used for largemouth and smallmouth bass and panfish are also dry flies because they float on the surface.

Streamers & Bucktails

Streamers are the flies that represent minnows, sculpins, leeches, and other swimming food items that provide big meals for bass, trout, panfish and saltwater fish such as tarpon, redfish, bonefish, and striped bass. Although all fish, regardless of size, will strike streamers, these flies are well known for their ability to take the largest fish in streams, ponds, lakes, and saltwater.

Since there are so many fly patterns available in today's market, there is a never ending argument as to what fly patterns are basic and what fly patterns should be consistently carried afield. Since no two anglers will agree as to choice, we have to start somewhere. With more than 3,000 fly patterns, in hook sizes ranging from 2-22, it does present an intimidating problem for a beginning fly fisherman.

The following list is a good primary list for beginning as well as seasoned fly fishermen. As a fly fisherman progresses in skill and experience, he or (she) will add other fly patterns, especially as trout become highly selective later in the season.

Practically all fishing conditions can be dealt with using this fly pattern assortment. But there are many other excellent fly patterns if you wish to expand your assortment.

The great majority of artificial nymphs, wets and dry flies are dressed to imitate mayflies, stone flies, and caddis flies, but the mayfly is the trout anglers foremost concern. Trout feed heavily upon the various stages of mayflies throughout the season, taking them off the bottom in the nymph stage; again sucking them in at the mid-stream level in the "wet fly" form; and slashing at them on the surface during the "dry" fly stage.

Flies seldom appear until water temperatures reach fifty degrees and usually do not emerge if the waters climb above seventy degrees.

Dry Fly Patterns

  Adams (Sizes 10-12-14-16)
  Black Gnat (Sizes 8-10-12-14-16-18-20)
  Blue Dun (Sizes 12-14-16)
  Dark Cahill (Sizes 10-12-14-16)
  Fan-Winged Royal Coachman (Sizes 10-12)
  Irresistible (Sizes 8-10-12)
  Light Cahill (Sizes 10-12-14-16-18)
  Light Hendrickson (Sizes 12-14-16)
  March Brown (Sizes 8-10)
  Quill Gordon (Sizes 12-14-16)

Wet Fly Patterns

  Black Gnat (Sizes 10-12-14-16)
  Blue Dun (Sizes 10-12-14)
  Coachman (Sizes 8-10-12)
  Dark Cahill (Sizes 10-12)
  Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear (Sizes 8-10-12-14)
  Leadwing Coachman (Sizes 10-12)
  Light Cahill (Sizes 8-10-12-14-16)
  Light Hendrickson (Sizes 10-12-14)
  March Brown (Sizes 8-10-12)
  Professor (Sizes 8-10-12)
  Quill Gordon (Sizes 10-12-14)
  Royal Coachman (Sizes 10-12-14)
  Wickham's Fancy (Sizes 8-10)
  Wooley Worm (Sizes 8-10-12)

Streamer Flies

  Black Ghost (Sizes 8-10)
  Black Nose Dace (Sizes 6-8-10-12)
  Gray Ghost (Sizes 6-8-10-12)
  Muddler Minnow (Sizes 6-8-10-12)
  Royal Coachman (Sizes 8-10)
  White Marabou (Sizes 8-10)

Nymph Patterns

  Blue Dun (Sizes 10-12-14)
  Caddis (Sizes 10-12-14)
  Cahill (Sizes 8-10-12-14)
  Hare's Ear (Sizes 8-10-12)
  Hendrickson (Sizes 10-12-14)
  March Brown (Sizes 8-10)
  Quill Gordon (Sizes 12-14)