What Popular patterns don’t work for you?

[SILKHDH 0]

Wow! How interesting to see the different answers from different areas of the country. It's crazy to me some replies. Wooly buggers have been awesome for me. I've caught trout, blue gills, crappie, Largemouth Bass, and slaughtered channel cats on them. Mainly black with olive tail beadhead with a touch of crystal flash in the tail. One of my best days EVER was fishing one for some Rainbow/steelhead hybrids (that's what they called them) at a resort called Rainbow Lake just up the pass from Buena Vista Colorado. The yellow humpy? Killed the trout in the evenings on the rIver below Rio Grand Reservoir in colorado. I used it because the trout were hitting moths that evening. Right at sun down when it was still light. Would let the current skate them on the surface. Making a little "V" wake in the water. BOOM! I've done the same on the Arkansas River between Salida and Buena vista. Ya got to make the "V" wake though. Letting them dead drift float with the current did not work. Hold the rod high with all your line out of the water with only the fly touching the water and let the fly skip and dance on the surface downstream from you. If you have ever seen a moth hit the water it will flutter right on the surface for a second (making that "V" in the water) then take back to the air. This is what I was imitating. And I don't know what to say about copper johns. THE'RE AWESOME! LOL. I tied some with chartruse wire. I've pounded large Rainbows and Browns on it. Won't be caught dead without them. Copper and black wire are also GREAT for me. I tie a small clouser with blue and silver tinsel and copper eyes thats SICK in the warm water lakes around here. Also small clousers with craft fur that crappie go nuts on. Not a typical clouser I know. What the heck is wrong with you people ....LOL.. Just kidding! Not about the flies though. I'm not a purist trout fly fisherman so maybe my comments don't count. Just saying. With no offence to anyone. Please. Most definitely the location and what the fishes feeding habits are is the key factor here.

[sandflyx 0]

Here in Pa most streams are loaded with Hellgramites and the bugger works great. other places might not have them and it doesn't work as well. crawfish are another one pa has lots of. a brown bugger works well to imitate them

[Mike West 0]

It's has always fascinated me why a fly or technique will seem to work for one person but not another on the same water. For me Woolly buggers have never produced with trout but I meet people on the river who swear by them.

That’s pretty much why I posed this question?

I think a lot of it has to do with having confidence in your fly also.

If you don’t have confidence in it you’re not gonna fish it for very long and if it’s not in the water it can’t catch fish.

 

If I was told I could only have one fly to fish for the rest of my life it would be a Muddler Minnow variant

I tie them from size 14 to 4/0 floating to bottom sinking and catch everything that swims on them.

[DFoster 0]

 

It's has always fascinated me why a fly or technique will seem to work for one person but not another on the same water. For me Woolly buggers have never produced with trout but I meet people on the river who swear by them.

That’s pretty much why I posed this question?

I think a lot of it has to do with having confidence in your fly also.

If you don’t have confidence in it you’re not gonna fish it for very long and if it’s not in the water it can’t catch fish.

 

If I was told I could only have one fly to fish for the rest of my life it would be a Muddler Minnow variant

I tie them from size 14 to 4/0 floating to bottom sinking and catch everything that swims on them.

 

I'm a dedicated trout/stream guy and I generally tie and fish traditional style flies. The prevailing wisdom on my home water is to high stick size 22-30 nymphs. The trouble for me is I don't enjoy that style of fishing and so I'm casting #12-20 winged wets, soft hackles and drys, with a dead drift technique. I may not catch as many fish as a some but I do catch enough to keep me happy.

[Rocco 0]

Egg patterns! Never worked for me probably vbcause I dislke them intensely and tried them rarely.

 

Wooly buggers are my best go to fly on trout and steel head . And I fish them like a streamer -- a touch of lead on the nose and lots of short strips and rod tip action. DEADLY! But dead drifted --sucker bait.

 

Rocco

[DrLogik 0]

+1 Wooly Bugger.

 

Every single friend of mine slays trout with it but I never caught a fish on one. I fish streamers and catch fish on them but not a Wooly Bugger. My confidence is near zero and that is probably why. I still carry them in my fly box though.

 

Maybe someday.......

[tjm 0]

I have never had a single hit on a "glow ball" which I guess is an egg pattern. but then I never fished with a bobber, so maybe it's my fault.

 

DFoster those wets and soft hackles catch more fish for me with some retrieve, hand twist or short strip. I don't think I really dead drift any thing for more than maybe three feet.

[Gunnison_Country 0]

I've never been able to catch a fish on a San Juan worm. Not one fish. A red Copper John hasn't fared much better for me either. Doug

[chugbug27 0]

Now that you mention it I think I've caught one on a San Juan worm... One. Exactly. Ever.

[mikechell 0]

I don't think I've chimed in on this topic before ... CRS.

I can't comment on "popular patterns", because I don't tie a lot of them. I've tried some of the patterns mentioned. When I tie something I've never used before, I only tie 6 of them. (usually ... sometimes they look really good and I'll do a couple more)

If I lose all of those to snags, etc., before I've caught a notable fish ... I don't bother tying more. I can say, MOST of the patterns mentioned are on my "don't bother tying more" list.

[Freddo 0]

I haven't even fished every pattern I've tied "yet" but have caught fish on wolly buggers and my first trout on a fly ever was on a Zug Bug (peacock herl is like crack to fish; no doubt). One thing for sure, and I've read a lot of this in this thread, is about fishing a "confidence" fly. I bass fish, and sorry upfront about this, but with "other" types of baits meaning not always flies. I knew they'd catch fish - they do for others. So I purposefully went out with ONLY that one type of bait, taught myself how to fish it, and "built" confidence in it. Some of those are "go to" baits now. My son kicks my rear with a bait I don't often use (again "yet").

 

Same with flies. We carry boxes full of them, some seem to work, others don't. The fish might be picky that day, color might matter, size might too but I'm not sold on the size thing (not in "small" increments anyway). If you're fishing and it's your passion, just keep trying. I would imagine with some flies and the fish, the materials and how they react in the water might trigger a strike or not. There are some well seasoned warm water guys here that would be able to tell me why, in a lake I fish, a fly I put in front of a school of bluegills would not get a take. They're not too line shy so I ruled that out. I fished a river with a caddis emerger pattern and I don't think it was ever refused by the redbreast sunfish I was into one afternoon.

 

Have fun, keep trying, and be safe!

[FishnPhil 0]

I have never caught a fish using a hares ear nymph. Have tried numerous times, have people fishing with and around me catching fish using them, but I can not. I don't bother tying them any more and they are only in my box to give to other people.

[robow7 0]

I fish mostly smallies and some greenies as well, and I know that a favorite food source is a crayfish. I have tied some crayfish patterns that were so realistic that I wanted to pull their tail off and boil em up but yet I catch so very few fish on them. I've tried so many crayfish patterns I've lost count but yet they never out fish my favorite baitfish patterns.

[Mike West 0]

I fish mostly smallies and some greenies as well, and I know that a favorite food source is a crayfish. I have tied some crayfish patterns that were so realistic that I wanted to pull their tail off and boil em up but yet I catch so very few fish on them. I've tried so many crayfish patterns I've lost count but yet they never out fish my favorite baitfish patterns.

 

Same here...even used real Crawdad oil on them.

Caught a Channel Cat once, that’s it.

Don’t bother with them any more.

[vicente 0]

Olive drab woolly buggers never worked on the creeks I fished growing up, but I had a bunch I had tied up in class at school, so I cut the tail off one, and instantly started catching fish with it.