1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Fly Fishing
›
3. personal favs or go to flies

Hi all
First time poster here. Ive been fly fishing for many years , but by no means call myself an expert. Ive always liked to use dry flies the most, like Tom Thumbs and suchlike. The thrill of the strike and the splash and all that. But recently I have been thinking of trying Nymph fishing. Just today I was at a small mountain lake and fishing off and improvised dock. There were a few fish rising, but my dry flys were not getting any action. I only have a few different nymph type patterns , and I tried them all. Dont really know what they are called. Couldnt see anything swimming around in the water to try and match. Several 6 to 10 inch trout were foraging where I could see them and once in a while one woud show a little interest in my presentation, then swim away. A nice 18 to 20 incher would cruise by occationally but did not even look at my flies. I tried ,a couple of shades of green, some greys a black and some lighter colored ones.
My questions are; What are your favorite colors and sizes of nymph type
flies? Are leader sizes really important? I had a sinking tip line on and the fish didnt seem too worried about my bright green line.(9ft leader)
They seemed to be foraging very near the weedy bottom , in approx 6 ft + of water.
cheers
bruce
Mid Okanagan BC Canada

You are probably going to need to go get some midge patterns. Try something like Ken Iwamasa's midge emerger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAa1oMDc_So

(for the rising fish)

For the foragers, use blood larva patterns.

If that doesn't work impart some motion in your nymphs. Cast well ahead of fish, let the fly sink all the way to the bottom, and when the fish gets close raise your rod tip to emulate a nymph rising up to emerge. Don't slow down when a fish gives chase or it will loose interest.

Bruce,
I just returned from a visit up to Virginia Lakes in the Eastern Sierras to test out some soft hackle patterns for use in high elevation lakes along with some other stuff that I wanted to use...I have been coming up to lakes on the Eastside since 1974...

< />

Tubers to the left...I like to fish from a boat on Little Virginia because it provides a high platform to spot cruisers...Elevation 9700'

< />

The Soft Hackles...

< />

Me...workin' 'em...

These are what produced on this trip...I use either a floating or intermediate line, 9'-12' leader and adjust the speed and method of my retrieve to what the Trout like...there are Rainbows, Brookies and Browns in this body of water:

< />

The standard PT and Partridge and Peacock and Partridge...these work almost all the time in Little Virginia...#12 for Peacock and #16 for PT were the ticket on this trip...

< />

I took the largest fish on this cone head (Owens "Offender") bugger, #6 - Rainbow (4lbs.) -fished off an intermediate line on Friday afternoon...stripped on 6" pulls, fast...

< />

Kelly Glissmeyer's Spring Creek Scud, #18 - fished on an intermediate line hand twist retrieve, rod twitch or 6' bursts...

< />

PURPLE PEACOCK & PARTRIDGE, #12...this killed

< />

QUICKSILVER SOFT HACKLE, #16 - stripped slowly or hand twist retrieve...

I would suggest an exploration of sites on Stillwater fishing by your fellow BCr, Brian Chan, Phil Rowley and Denny Rickards...those guys know how to fish in lakes

...and think ouside the box...

PT/TB

Beautiful flies, and good shots of them. Congratulations on the good fishing!

Simplest, thread midges, like zebra midges in various shades and sizes. So easy to tie, and work very well. Some I lay down a thread base in red after putting on a tungsten bead, tie in some brown midge tubing at the bend, advance the red thread, wrap the tubing to create the body, and tie it off. Easy peasy! as they say. Things work great. Look kind of brown, kind of red. Not a zebra midge exactly, but about the same, and it works.

A pretty little spot! Thanks for sharing.

Spence

Just in case the Forum members are unaware Planettrout has just about the best trout fishing blog in the entire world. Great stories of his trout fishing exploits out west with his lovely daughter. Zillions of posts and tons of pictures of midge nymphs. You can spend a few hours reading all of his posts.

If you click on his avatar there is a link to his blog. I found it by accident about three years ago and visit it from time to time to see what new stuff he's posted up.