NJpatbee

So many excellent tiers that I could not pick just one. Most influential for my tying are Harry and Elsie Darbee, Vince Marinaro, Dick Talleur, and John Barr. I would also like to add Sylvester Nemes for advocating the original soft hackle flies from the North Country of England.

In NW Jersey (yes, we have good numbers of wild brookies!) my favorite dry is a Len Wright fluttering caddis, wet is partridge/orange, and nymph is a copperhead (copper bead head hares ear with copper wire ribbing. Brookie numbers are down a bit after 2 drought years.

I don't have pictures to post but I will. I use 2 flies for the Eastern Grannom: A size 18 snipe/purple soft hackle and a fluttering caddis dry fly as tied by Leonard Wright, which uses stiff hackle barbules bunched together for the wings. One difference from Wright's process is I use a hook size a couple of sizes smaller than the size of the fly, wing included. This allows for the hook to give less resistance to any "twitching" of the fly while retaining a realistic body to wing proportion of the caddis fly. Next time you can catch a caddis take a look at the body to wing proportion - you will likely find that the body is smaller than the flies appearance with the long wings. If you want to learn more about this caddis dry fly pattern check out "Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect" by Leonard Wright. I got my copy in the early 1970's but there are some later editions available on Amazon at a really low price.

Ditto