flys to use???

[hunter93]

hey everyone i am getting into fly fishing, and was curious on what flys i should use i am gonna be fly fishing for steel head, and trought. thanks for the help

[jackelope]

There's about umpteen variables here. What time of year and where for starters.
Summer steelhead flies and winter flies vary greatly.

[Button Nubbs]

There are a billion different factors that influence what bait/fly/lure to use in any type of fishing. Kinda hard to narrow down such a broad post.

[hunter93]

Alright ha I forgot about that, well I'm starting steelhead in the summer, and trout right now.

[Button Nubbs]

I am not a fly fisherman but have steelheaded for many years now. In my findings a steelhead is a steelhead weather it is a summer fish or a winter fish for the most part. When the rivers first open to summer run fishing they are usually high and colored up a little. I use "winter-run gear" for summer runs then. As the summer progresses the water will get lower and clearer. Before it gets way low and crystal clear I will use "low water winter run gear". When you get into the super low crystal clear conditions that the summer brings you will need to switch to summer run gear. I have drift fish size 8 trout flies and caught steelhead in very tough low water conditions.

I can't really speak for trout but for steelhead its all about the water conditions.

[jeepster]

for trout (in lakes).... well, thats pretty simple

wet flies:

wooly buggers....wooly buggers, and more wooly buggers. well... that is if you are fishing out of a boat. find 3 shades of brown in 3 different sizes, black, beadheads, and 3 shades of green in 3 sizes. make sure to get at least 2 of each. cast em, strip em, troll em, drift em... the MOST versatile fly i can think of.

but just as important, chironomids! they have outfished all other flies ive seen. they are boring to fish and takes TONS of patients.... rig a dropper and some strike indicator putty and just sit and wait.... unlike bait, the longer it sits, the better off you are, they simulate suspended larve floating to the surface, but they are 1000000 times more productive than bait. big and small, thats what the trout eat. make sure to stay perfectly still in your boat/tube. read a book, have a beer. they work, it can just take forever.

if the lake has crawdads.... get some crawdad patterns. those can be DEADLY. some of the biggest trout ive seen taken out of a lake were on a crawdaddy.

leach patterns are good, but as always 3 different colors, 3 different sizes, damsel nymphs are also good.

dry flies

just remember, "Match the Hatch" spend a day figuring out what bugs are hatching on the lake and then go to the flyshop.

some of the best dry flys are ant patterns, small damsels, mosquitos, black gnats, royal wulfs, royal coachmans, elk hair cadis, and grass hopper patterns are some of my favorite


some things a flyfisherman should carry with them are a good pair for forceps for hook/fly removal, strike indacator putty (its a bobber... in putty form), splitshot, and this stuff called Gink, which is a dry fly dressing.... put it on your fly and leader to keep it floating, and so your dry flies stay "dry"


thats my all i have in my fly box for lake fishing. its all ive ever needed. i even have a special wooly bugger that has limited me out 9 times in a row. it since has been retired, and now lives on my hat

[jeepster]

but keep in mind i have 7 or 8  fly boxes with everything from microscopic size 18 gnats for yellowstone, to 6/0 streamers for roosterfish. thing about fly fishing is you just have to pay attention to where you are fishing.

every lake, every hole, every stream, has its own specific combination of flies.

learning how to flyfish has been one of the most frustrating, infurating, hardest things ive put myself through. there have been times where ive chucked my rod across the beach, even once throwing a rod like a jevelin as far as i can into the lake screaming "f-this" and sworn never to do it again, and hated every minute of doing it......

but over the years, it also has been the most rewarding styles of fishing ive ever done. eventually that hate turns to love, and you get to a point where you question if you will ever pick up any other kind of rod again. i found landing my first nice trout on a flyrod just as gratifying as it was to land my trophy marlin.

best of luck

[PolarBear]

Spanish 

[Madison]

#6 weighted egg sucking leech will work in about all situations.

[MtnMuley]

"Match the Hatch" as said earlier.  Also, black wooley buggers are a good start most of the time.

[Armadillo]

Spanish 

Those always get the most action

[Armadillo]

Yeah wooly buggers are the go-to when nothing else seems to work. Anything big and bushy really! Never really had any outrageously good experience with matching the hatch the way I fish. I usually use wet flies most everywhere I go. I'll use bright colors in lakes and streams during the day with excellent results and right at dusk is the prime time to float em on the surface! These are for trout. For steelhead you really have to just play around and see what your particular fish are going to take. Believe it or not I have seen a steehead take a dry fly so you really cannot rule anything out but they do tend to go after certain patterns. Ive had great success on skunk patterns

[TheHunt]

I went out with a master fly fisherman.  From what I can see you need to really know the bait in the water.  What insects are in the water.  We spent about 20 min in the water (Under rocks, etc.)  and the brush to look for insects.  Once he knew what was around we used flies that looked like those insects.