Go to dry fly

[Fish For Life 0]

What is your go to dry fly when there is no obvious hatch going on. Some days you just want to dry fly fish instead of nymph, but when there's no hatch what do you use? Do you have a favorite do it all kind of dry fly? Something that will always work even if no hatch is occurring. A fly to entice a fish to take it even if they are not readily rising. Personally i don't have one yet. I have done very little dry fly fishing and am wanting to get more into it. Thus this question is where i will start.

i guess what im really looking for are some dry fly searching patterns. Not necessarily designed to match a particular hatch but rather cover a few different ones.

 

Thanks

[williamhj 0]

I wouldn't say "will always work" but foam beetle is a definite go to fly for me when nothing is rising.

[mikechell 0]

Never fished a "hatch".

[Fish For Life 0]

Never fished a "hatch".

Why not? Have you never been bass or crappie fishing and seen some dragonfly's rising and not decided to chuck one out?

I know its not the same as trout fishing, but you must have matched the hatch sometime while bass fishing!

[vicrider 0]

I'm going by reading a lot of articles from guys who've spent years on the river. It is pretty consistent that they will go with a Caddis in that situation. It is a profile the trout have seen often enough to accept at any time whether a hatch or not. 'Course you always have to know if hoppers or beetles or bees or ants are bringing fish up and go that direction.

[retrocarp 0]

I'm inclined to agree with vicrider,

[Crackaig 0]

It would have to be the CdC and Elk for me.

Cheers,

C.

[Chase Creek 0]

I guess mine would have to be a Hare's Ear Parachute. Really good all around dry. Use it a lot.

[eide 0]

That one, any day!

[Dave G. 0]

One version or another of Elk Hair Caddis is my first practical choice ( i really want to fish Wulfes but the caddis is more practical). Around here it would be a black caddis but sometimes in Maine too after you find olive not working.. Cream body or Pink Fox with Brown, golden Badger Hackle, deer hair wing or even sometimes darker moose hair ( nearly black). I've caught a lot of fish in seemingly no hatch by tying on an elk hair caddis in size 14 or 16, in fact even size 12 sometimes.. If nothing else you might get rises with no takers but you just located where the fish are, go back and nymph fish the spot, eddy, pool, riffle , what ever..

 

A second thought when searching is to use a Royal Wulf or Stimulator and drop a small nymph under it. Now you double your chances. Often they will just whack at the dry only but actually take the nymph. Other times I've seen the dry disappear in a swirl getting sucked under from below the water surface. Other times they are on the nymph directly and the dry goes down like a bobber. If the dry goes down like a bobber, set the dang hook !!! LOL.. I've missed a few fish standing there like a boob in idle wonder that the dry disappeared, usually the coffee hasn't kicked in well enough yet. I did that in a drift boat last year fishing with strike indicators and nymphs.

 

A third thought and if someone said you are going to Maine fishing rivers for the summer but you can only take materials for one fly pattern with you. That fly would be a Muddler, small Mudder. Grease it up, fish it dry in a caddis hatch ( people don't relate to that maybe but it often works when true caddis patterns don't). Fish it wet, fish it with sinking line, floating line. Muddlers catch fish. Fish it in a caddis hatch, fish it as a minnow, fish it as a hopper, fish it as a sculpin.

 

In bass waters I use panfish poppers in chartreuse. No hatch even looks like it but bass crash them.

[flytire 0]

i don't think there is that 1 magic do it all kind of fly. otherwise that's all we would carry in our fly boxes

 

adams parachute

 

royal wulff

 

elk hair caddis

 

stimulator

 

those 4 flies do account for a lot of hookups

[JoeBillingsley 0]

Lime Trude. I don't know why it works so well or what the fish like about it so much, but it works. Second choice would be a smallish (#16) Stimulator.

 

Joe

[JayWirth 0]

My go to fly is an elk hair caddis

[mikechell 0]

 

Never fished a "hatch".

Why not? Have you never been bass or crappie fishing and seen some dragonfly's rising and not decided to chuck one out?

I know its not the same as trout fishing, but you must have matched the hatch sometime while bass fishing!

 

I can honestly say, I do not remember ever seeing a hatch with rises that made me change the fly I was using.

I use foam poppers and floating ant patterns for most of my top water action.

Although I've tied up some mayflies, I've yet to fish them. I've also tied some dragon fly patterns, but I haven't caught much on them. And, I've never actually witnessed a "hatch" of dragon flies ... they just seem to be out there all the time.

 

The only hatch I see is the "blind mosquito" midges. They are so small, I am not even going to try to match that.

[singletrack 0]

I have really found I like a Royal Wulff. I use to always fish elk hair caddis in times like that but I have found the Royal to be better and more productive. I like them in size 18. Just last month I caught my largest fish ever on a dry using that royal. It actually chased the fly down to take it pretty cool to see.