What Flies Should You Take With You

A common question among newbies to fly fishing is what flies should you take with you? This question although short has a large set of parameters to consider before making a selection. Continue to read this article as we discuss these.

First off you need to decide on your target species, trout for instance have many variations and are different allover the world. The main species being Brown, Rainbow, Brook, Cut-throat, and Sea Trout (a brown trout that has gone to sea). Of these no two will behave the same way when approached with flies. This is were the canny fly fisher will do a bit of research into the location and target species to get a better understanding and hopefully a better catch.

Local tackle shops are full of great information if you can tease it out of the owner or customers. Make sure you don't just turn up get your info and go but buy something even if its only a few flies they have recommended that way you will build up a relationship and trust so your next visit will be even more fruitful. Some dealers will bombard you with info and make the selection job more difficult but get them to pick two flies that have worked well over the past few weeks. Then choose a few similar to those before you go.

Other considerations are weather conditions, water height, water colour and season. Each of these also play an important part in the feeding behavior of trout. There are a few flies that you can use all season long if conditions are correct and the trout are feeding on the bottom or close to it like the Pheasant Tail Nymph and the Gold Ribbed Hares Ear both of these are weighted patterns and will sink to the feeding trout giving you a good all rounder to have in the fly box.

Apart from local knowledge using your own instincts when you get to the river is also important. You need to watch to see what is happening. Where are the trout showing, is there a hatch of insects on etc? Are the trout feeding and if so on what? How are the trout taking the insects with slow sips or big splashes? These things are all important when deciding on how to present you flies to the trout and how you will retrieve your cast in order to entice a take.

So I hope this small article has given you something to think about before setting off on your next fly fishing trip and you have a better understanding of what flies to take with you.

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