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wschmitt3

Mayfly Patterns For Trout

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What dry fly patterns do you stock in your fly boxes for May and June mayfly duns?

 

Im pretty well aware of what is out there so I'm not looking for advise I already have a working list of what I'll be stocking that i don't think I'll change. I'm just curious about what patterns the folks in this forum might be picking through this year.

I'd share my list now but I'm sitting in a waiting room so I'll post it when I get home.

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I know that the western streams that I fish in may and June will usually still be high with snow runoff water. The tail waters will still have hatches, so for mayflies, I can usually get by in May and Early June with BWO patterns, I usually go with a hackle dun for the BWO, and a cripple and an emerger of my own design for those. Later in June, there will be Western Green Drakes, and some PMD hatching. If I am there at the right time, I will have the same cripple and emerger patterns in a size 16 for the PMDs. The Green Drakes take a size 10 extended body compara-dun. and again the same cripple and emerger patterns in size 10. The only "standard" pattern I usually carry for western streams are Adams with a white deer hair wing, and either gray, tan or olive bodies.

 

Any list of mayfly patterns would have to be specific to the areas and streams one fishes in May and June. I can think of lots of patterns I would want to have if I were going to be fishing in the east, but since I won't be, I don't worry about those.

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Hendriksons, Blue Quills, Baetis, Sulphers, Black caddis, Apple caddis. End of June, Tan caddis, Cream caddis, Potamanthus, Iso's, Grey fox's and always a large selection of Rusty spinners. All of these are tied with custom dubbing blends for the Battenkill, Walloomsac, and Mettowee rivers. They are also mostly tied as comparaduns and emergers. I fish no catskill style flies.

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Patterns to match the hatch, depending on how the rest of winter and most of spring goes, starting somewhere around the Hendrickson and ending with Cahills.

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In my neck of the Northeast May June is Sulfur and Cahill time. I have been playing with CDC a lot the last couple of years and like it for emergers and cripples. I also like snowshoe rabbit foot hair for wings on smaller dries, especially for sulfurs. There is no shortage of material on You Tube covering using this stuff so start watching an tying.

 

Steve

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So the main reason I started up this thread is because last year I had like 150 may flies in my box and most were not producers I was trying too hard to carry the perfect fly to match everything. I had dark and light hendricksons and cahills, red, ginger and blue quill, Green and brown drake (which I never see here) march browns (which I also never see). It was really just too much crap I didn't need. Late in the season I started to experiment with a few other patterns types and decided this year I would revamp the mayfly patterns I carry and try a more general approach.

I don't really think that carrying "Match the hatch flies" is the way to go for me or the places I fish. I see a only a few sizes and shades of mayflies coming off in the places that I fish. With this in mind I made up a list of may flies I wanted to carry that should pretty well cover the whole seasons mayfly emergences.

 

 

 

This is it-

Light Cahill - 16-20

Para-Cahill - 16-20

Para-Adams - 12-18

Para-BWO - 16-20

Para-Pheasant Tail - 14-16

Harrop's Hairwing BWO- 16-18

Harrop's Hairwing Adams 12-16

Harrop's Hairwing Cahill 16-18

Pheasant Tail Harrop's Hairwing -14-18 (I tie this on a scud hook with wire to sink the body and tail and z-lon tail to represent an emerger)

Phesant Tail Variant 12-16 (for brook trout @ headwater)

Golden Drake Dun (Variant Style)- 10 - I see golden drakes come off here and there all year on several streams near me so I try to always have one in my box

Royal Wulff 12-16

 

 

In addition to these patterns for duns ill carry a few cdc rusty spinners and rusty colored parachutes as well as a couple colors and sizes of quigleys style cripples and cdc smoke jumpers in a couple sizes and colors.

 

I think this list covers needs for sizes and shades as pretty well as well as types of waters (riffles & pools)

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The problem is, you're never quite sure what you are going to encounter. If you check local hatch charts for the various streams you fish, that will give you a range of flies, sizes and dates when they are usually effective. In addition, Fishing Reports are supposed to tell you what is currently working. Take them with a grain of salt, but that gives you an idea of what to start out with.

 

On the tail waters, you can get by with just a few flies. Here in the southeast it's, sulphers, BWO's and midges. On the freestone streams, though, it's a whole different story, and includes dozens of may flies, and a good assortment of caddis and stoneflies. Midges are sometimes useful as well.

 

I just fill my boxes with what I think I might need, and start fishing. Based on what I observe, I may take a break and go back to the car to make some adjustments. I also usually carry a box of assorted midges (adult, larva and emergers) as well as a box of nymphs.

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The problem is, you're never quite sure what you are going to encounter. If you check local hatch charts for the various streams you fish, that will give you a range of flies, sizes and dates when they are usually effective. In addition, Fishing Reports are supposed to tell you what is currently working. Take them with a grain of salt, but that gives you an idea of what to start out with.

 

Not knowing what I am going to encounter is exactly why I want to put together a good but not too large selection of colors and sizes that will cover the mayflies and water types I see most often. And I am past the looking for an idea of what to start out with I am at the stage of tailoring my selections to my fishing style, river conditions and most frequently encountered insect activity.

 

I find hatch charts all but useless. Firstly there isn't a fly shop within fifty miles of me and the fishing conditions in the rivers that I fish are very different than the rivers that those fly shops promote and guide on. Also I am pretty sure that those are really nothing more than marketing tools.

 

What I have found over the last few years is that I pretty much only see a few variations of flies and I pretty much see them all season long. These variations are - small and light colored (light and cream cahill and yellow quill), small and smaller BWO, and larger flies (isonychia mainly) I also see the golden drake here and there and the fish crash into each other going after them. There are obviously more mayflies that hatch here but they are in such small concentrations that carrying a pattern to specifically match is pointless so instead I carry something that is a general pattern and carefully present it.

 

The way that I fish returning to a car for flies would eat up too much time to be worth it. I often cover several river miles in a 3-4 hour outing and most of the time I walk to one of the 5 rivers that I fish I carry a pretty large hip pack (ledges 650) with a few large boxes in it so space isn't really an issue the real issue is that I hate seeing all of these patterns I don't hardly ever use and I want more room for backups of more useful patterns.

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