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Rivers

All riversHatch chartWhite River, ArkansasDavidson RiverPenns CreekLetort Spring RunFarmington RiverPere Marquette RiverNorth Umpqua RiverDeschutes RiverSan Juan RiverFryingpan RiverYellowstone RiverBighorn RiverTraun RiverBeaverkill RiverRío GrandeGreen River below Flaming GorgeRiver WharfeHenry's Fork of the SnakeSoča RiverAu Sable RiverTongariro RiverSouth Platte — Deckers and CheesmanRiver TestMadison River

Insects

Brown troutRainbow troutMountain whitefishBrook troutCutthroat troutSteelheadEuropean graylingMarble troutSea-run brown troutResident brown trout

Techniques

Reading waterMatching a hatchNymphingDry-fly presentationStreamer fishingSwinging a flyCatch and release, done properlyTying flies you will actually fish

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Techniques
White River, ArkansasDavidson RiverPenns CreekLetort Spring RunFarmington RiverPere Marquette RiverNorth Umpqua RiverDeschutes RiverSan Juan RiverFryingpan RiverYellowstone RiverBighorn RiverTraun RiverBeaverkill RiverRío GrandeGreen River below Flaming GorgeRiver WharfeHenry's Fork of the SnakeSoča RiverAu Sable RiverTongariro RiverSouth Platte — Deckers and CheesmanRiver TestMadison River
Brown troutRainbow troutMountain whitefishBrook troutCutthroat troutSteelheadEuropean graylingMarble troutSea-run brown troutResident brown trout
Reading waterMatching a hatchNymphingDry-fly presentationStreamer fishingSwinging a flyCatch and release, done properlyTying flies you will actually fish

Technique · Winter evenings, before the season opens.

Tying flies you will actually fish

A short list of patterns that covers most of a season, and what to get right on each.

By The Fly Desk

Proportion beats materials

A Hare's Ear tied with the wrong fur but the right proportions will out-fish a perfect-material fly tied too fat. The hook shank divided in thirds — tail, body, thorax — is the single rule that makes a nymph look like food rather than a caterpillar. Measure it against the hook, not against a photograph.

Tie three sizes of six patterns

A box of eighteen flies — a Pheasant Tail, a Hare's Ear, a Zebra Midge, an Elk Hair Caddis, a Comparadun and a Woolly Bugger, each in #12, #16 and #20 — will fish almost any river in this ledger on the day you arrive. Depth and size are adjustable; a box with 200 patterns in one size is not.

Tie for the water you fish

The reason local patterns exist is that they encode a specific river's light and colour. A fly that works on a clear alpine river is often too subtle for a peaty Norwegian salmon river, and vice versa. Before you tie a season's worth of anything, tie six of it in different weights and colours and fish them against each other on your home water.

Rivers in the ledger where this applies