Fly Fishing For Trout - The Flies

By Bob Ives

There are a lot of different types of flies used in fly fishing and many of them serve different purposes and are designed for different conditions. When fly fishing for trout, you will have occasion to use most types of them, so it pays to be familiar with them.

Most flies are small and lightweight and come in variations that can float, sink, or be suspended just below the surface. Fishing flies look like the food that fish eat. It is important to learn how to work a fly in the manner that the natural forage would act in the water. For example, injured bait fishing of dart then sink, and bugs often hop and float.

Types of trout flies include dry flies, wet flies, emergers (these imitate insects in the process of hatching - trout love them), nymphs, and streamers. There's essentially no limit to the color patterns and materials used.

Trout Can Smell You

One important trout fly tip you need to keep in mind is that fish are sensitive to smells and it’s advisable to wash your hands well before handling your fly fishing tackle. Cigarette smoke, sun tan lotions, insect repellants and anything unnatural will generally spook trout. Rubbing your hands in dirt, with leaves, or even with a fish attractant can help.

Trout Can Be Finicky

Sometimes when fly fishing, trout don’t seem to be too impressed with your offering. If you have tried a variety of colors and styles and still are having no luck, try downsizing by using a fly with less hackle (feathers). You may also want to try a spent-wing fly or a fan wing (flies that resemble dragonflies – like airplane wings).

Fly Fishing Wet Flies Verses Streamers

Many fishermen fish wet flies (resembles insects) just as they would fish a streamer (resembles injured bait fish). Trout will go after streamers because these big offerings are more worth the energy expended than a little wet fly is. So, with a dry fly you have to pay attention to where you are casting and to what your bait is drifting past.

You have to put the pattern right in front of the fish. If you are good at reading the water and are good at casting, you can make sure your fly drifts past all the best lies in a stretch of water. Vary the action of the fly until you get bit. Try a standard swing or dead drift and if you don’t get any hits, present the fly so that it begins to rise just as it reaches a good lie.

Fly Fishing Nymphs Verses Terrestrials

A nymph fly is a wet fly designed to resemble an insect living under water, a larvae, coming out of its cocoon. Trout love to eat these. You can add some weight to these to keep them underwater. These naturally ‘belong’ in the water, as opposed to terrestrial flies, which look like insects that ‘fell’ into the water and are trying to escape or have drowned. Examples would be butterflies, caterpillars, spiders, wasps, etc. These are not normal forage for trout, so they are a like a ‘treat’ when they get one. They normally feed on these on the surface, so you would fish these as dry flies.