Top 5 Fly List

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

Just curious...

Anthony






Not sure how to interpret your question, so I'll put up a list of my
five most used flies in no particular order:


Bruce's Foam Backed Midge
Soft Hackle Hare's Ear
Pheasant Tail
Parachute Adams
Charlie Wilson's Orange Stimulator

A Woolly Bugger is a standard and is mentioned by people here ( Scott
even chose it although "that I rarely use on the particular waters that
I usually fish"). In all the years I've fished, I've probably caught a
dozen stream/river fish on a Bugger. I haven't fished it alot but enough
to know it doesn't produce for me. I have some success with it in lakes
both for trout and carp.

Willi

Scott Seidman wrote:

I think of the Usual as something of an eastern pattern
and I never had occasion to use one until I tried Tom's.
It's an excellent fly but not one that's usually stocked
in fly shops where I fish so it flies under my radar. 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. ;-)




What's your biggest hatch?? Just let me know size, tail, body, and wing
color (wing can be white, dun, or natural bunny foot). No promises, but
next time I tie them up, if I have enough hooks laying around, I'll try
to remember to whip off a half dozen for you.



Like I said in another thread, the Usual is one of the two flies that I
got in a swap that I use the most. However, I "usually" use a modified
"Usual". Most of the hatches I fish (aside from Stoneflies) are small.
18's and 20's are the most common. I find the normal Usual kind of gross
in those sizes. I use the Usual wing but use micro fibbetts for the tail
and a variety of body materials like quill, thread, and dubbing.

Willi

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

Just curious...

Anthony

PT(several variations)
EC Caddis
Copper John
Hopper(variations)
Para BWO

brians

"Scott Seidman" wrote


I'm a Usual guy


many people find me a bit unusual, .... but is a Usual just using snowshoe
rabbit foot hair for the wings instead of more usual materials?

If so, I usually have a few Usuals in my box, although I find the hair hard
to deal with in smaller sizes and usually use cdc for those

"Larry L" wrote in
:


"Scott Seidman" wrote


I'm a Usual guy


many people find me a bit unusual, .... but is a Usual just using
snowshoe rabbit foot hair for the wings instead of more usual
materials?


That's the beast

If so, I usually have a few Usuals in my box, although I find the hair
hard to deal with in smaller sizes and usually use cdc for those



Tom has posted a cool way to deal with small flies and showshoe.


--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"Scott Seidman" wrote

Tom has posted a cool way to deal with small flies and showshoe.

.....and, I will repeat, in brief form:

chop the hair off the snowshoe rabbit foot. All of it.
Pile it into a coffee grinder and mix it with a couple of short pulses. The
mess you now have is mixed up every which way, which is how you want it.
To tie wings onto a small hook(I use these techniques on
18s and smaller), a few basic techniques are used. For upright wing clumps,
take a sparse pinch of hair, lash across shank as you would a spinner wing.
Pull upright, take one, or at most two wraps around the base of the splayed
wing. Voila! It stands upright, with no added bulk.
For downwings, take similar sparse clump of hair, hold over shank and tie
down behind eye. DO NOT cut the length hanging forward, but instead, divide
forward strands into two halves, lash one down on far side of wing, one on
near side of wing. No more than 6 wraps of thread should complete this whole
process, after which you can finish head area sparsely. Hope this helps.
Tom

"Tom Littleton" wrote in
news:3zsLf.50441$6f2.6969@trnddc02:


"Scott Seidman" wrote

Tom has posted a cool way to deal with small flies and showshoe.

....and, I will repeat, in brief form:

chop the hair off the snowshoe rabbit foot. All of it.
Pile it into a coffee grinder and mix it with a couple of short
pulses. The mess you now have is mixed up every which way, which is
how you want it. To tie wings onto a small hook(I use these techniques
on 18s and smaller), a few basic techniques are used. For upright wing
clumps, take a sparse pinch of hair, lash across shank as you would a
spinner wing. Pull upright, take one, or at most two wraps around the
base of the splayed wing. Voila! It stands upright, with no added
bulk. For downwings, take similar sparse clump of hair, hold over
shank and tie down behind eye. DO NOT cut the length hanging forward,
but instead, divide forward strands into two halves, lash one down on
far side of wing, one on near side of wing. No more than 6 wraps of
thread should complete this whole process, after which you can finish
head area sparsely. Hope this helps.
Tom





Thanks for refreshing my memory, Tom. I was about to go search google,
but now I have this post archived.

It's going to be interesting to see if the usuals pop up on peoples top
fly list around next september.

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

Don't use much "hackle" anymore. Love that snowshoe. Got a bunch of
cul d'canard if anyone wants it.

Frank Reid

Don't use much "hackle" anymore. Love that snowshoe. Got a bunch of
cul d'canard if anyone wants it.

Frank Reid

Tom, when you going to bring the Coyote Ugly out of the closet? Best
fly I've used in years.
Tom: "I think this water has been fished over."
Frank: "Yeh, by ME!"
Love that fly.
Frank Reid