Fishing - Top 5 Fly List

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On 2/23/06 1:34 PM, in article , "William
Claspy" wrote:

So just now I ditty-bopped on over to gula.org to look at the picture of
Tom's Usual and KA-BLAM! "The database is off-line. Please try later."

Noooooooo!

I just used Google and they had Stan's page still in the cache.

I also looked at a few other Usual images via Google, and it would appear
that there isn't really a standard pattern, even beyond colors. One had the
wing as a down wing, one had it looking like a parachute post, and Tom's is
raked forward. Most use snowshoe hare hair ;-) as the tail, but one used
mallard flank feathers. Interesting!

Bill

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 00:18:46 GMT, "Anthony" wrote:

What's your top 5 favorite flys currently in use? Don't really care where
your fishin 'em.

Adams
Elk Hair Caddis
Wooly Bugger
Usual
foam head emerger

1.) Ryan's Butt(Tim "Panman" Anderson Pattern)
2.) PT Nymph
3.) Marabou Miss
4.) BH Nymph
5.) Waxie(my own Waxworm Pattern)

Kahuna

Anthony wrote:
What's your top 5 favorite flys currently in use? Don't really
care where=

From Anthony's message dated 2/22/2006 4:18 PM:
What's your top 5 favorite flys currently in use? Don't really care where
your fishin 'em.

Just curious...

Anthony

I've stopped carrying 5 boxes and a portable tying kit, and have begun
travelling lighter.

Last year I carried only Bird's Nests and Stimulators, each in various
colors. It worked very well for me.

"Ken Fortenberry" Now
that my eyes are almost fixed and I can get back to tying
I'll have to get some bunny and tie a few. (Although I'd
just as soon have a few of Tom's. ;-)

FWIW, I have been tinkering for the past 6 or 7 years with a lot of
variations on the Usual thing. Duns,at first, and midge emergers, then on to
caddis adults and emergers. Snowshoe is wonderful stuff, and at the moment,
I would say nearly half of my surface or near-surface trout fishing finds me
with a snowshoe hair pattern at the terminal end.
Tom

5 + 8 = 5

elk hair caddis
royal wulff
sparkle dun
woolley bugger
brassie
pheasant tail
bobber hopper
bunyan bugger
marshmallow nymph
bluedoo
roadkill streamer
skulkin
twinkie

"Scott Seidman" wrote in message
Maybe Tom can kick in with a little history.

well, I first got a hold of it from talking to Betters back in 1980 or so.
He can get kind of, well, excitable about his inventions, so I took him with
a grain of salt and took a half dozen of the "original" Phillips Usual off
his hands. The fly was named by a customer of Fran's by the name of Bill
Phillips, who annoyed the crap out of people onstream by replying "the
Usual" when asked what he was nailing fish on.
Anyhow, the pattern I got was composed entirely of snowshoe rabbit foot
hair, the coarse hairs for the tail and wing and the underfur, dubbed onto
fluorescent orange thread for the body. They worked.....really well at
times.
No one really did much with snowshoe beyond the original that I ever heard
of until around 1990, when a few of us started tinkering. Fred Reese figured
out how to dye them properly, and this expanded the useful winging colors. A
whole host of folks jumped in and started playing with the stuff, here in
the east, notably Barry Beck(who damn near cleaned out Fred's supply a week
before I placed an order, bastid!) and Art Lee, who wrote a good article on
making dun imitations. I was interested in a durable substitute for CDC, and
felt(and still feel) snowshoe was the ticket. It floats well, dries out
easily, attacts bubbles like CDC, and when you learn how to chop it up and
tie in mixed clumps of the stuff on little hooks, will tie down as small as
you want.
Tom

oh yeah, my top five:

Yellow(Perla) stonefly nymph
Snowshoe Caddis(tan,if I had to pick a color)
Snowshoe Sulfur(sulfurs are too numerous in PA,
this one gets used for 2 months)
Black Ant
Submerger(a scruffy soft hackle wet fly)

still, if you tried to part me from the other 760 or so patterns in my vest,
I would have to kill you.....

Tom

"Tom Littleton" wrote in
news:OcpLf.16611$GQ.15443@trnddc03:

"Ken Fortenberry" Now
that my eyes are almost fixed and I can get back to tying
I'll have to get some bunny and tie a few. (Although I'd
just as soon have a few of Tom's. ;-)

FWIW, I have been tinkering for the past 6 or 7 years with a lot of
variations on the Usual thing. Duns,at first, and midge emergers, then
on to caddis adults and emergers. Snowshoe is wonderful stuff, and at
the moment, I would say nearly half of my surface or near-surface
trout fishing finds me with a snowshoe hair pattern at the terminal
end.
Tom

It is super stuff.

In general, I find myself using less and less traditional hackle these
days-- and when I do, its often on a Caddis imitation. When I fish with
a traditional Catskill, its often an older fly. I fish them less, so
they stay in my box longer.

The exception is during our sulphur hatch. We have a great local burned
wing sulphur-- the one Peter Collin tied in a swap some years ago--
that's killer at the right time of year. Even then, I usually cut the
bottom of the hackle off so it sits low in the water. In any case, I
tend to buy the feathers for that fly in Whiting 100-packs.

Scott

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"Scott Seidman" wrote The exception is
during our sulphur hatch. We have a great local burned
wing sulphur-- the one Peter Collin tied in a swap some years ago--
that's killer at the right time of year. Even then, I usually cut the
bottom of the hackle off so it sits low in the water.

having found that, on flat water, low floating sulfurs are by far the best,
I swear by the snowshoe sulfur duns(I tie an orange and a pale yellow
version). I find cutwings too fussy and fragile to fish hard, and I fish
sulfur hatches hard.
Tom