In riverman wrote:
I have a FlyFishing mag from England that talks about 'minimal
flies', and the most minimal successful fly it offers is a red
circle hook. That's it! They say it works really well, as it
replicates a larva of something or other that trout eat...

Bloodworm/Chironomid/Midge larva. You can do the pupa
by tying a couple wraps of peacock herl at the head, and a
tuft of antron or similar for gills. Black bead would also
work as a head/thorax, and CDC instead of antron would give
you an emerger (with the thorax black thread over the butts
of the CDC plume).

Plain green hook, if you could get such, would be an
approximation of some caddis larvae like GRWs. Plain silver
and gold hooks have been known to take fish on their own, too
(especially gold). These would be *real* impressionistic
imitations of midge pupae that don't have the hemoglobin.

Todd (remove hook to reply)