Go to stillwater trout patterns

[cduff]

what are your go to patterns??
Ive been skunked the past couple days and my tried and true patterns seem to have lost their touch with the recent damsel action going on at the local lakes. while I'm stocking up on damsels i thought ild see what your thoughts are and see if i can add a new line up to the box! Thanks!

My front 5:
#10 brown wooly bugger with gold flash
#8 Zonked out leech without foam
Stimulator
Red zebra midge
Para Adams

 

[cpowell]

Renegade and captain.

 

[james w 3 3]

90% of the time I'm fishing a very simple fly with no name, little more than a thin marabou tail using the spindliest marabou barbs, and a matching small dubbed body. Sometimes with a couple wraps of J Fair short shuck at the head.
Black or dark brown usually.
In the water it's very lively, buggy looking, it's unweighted. I believe it's that lively movement that's critical.

(I'm on my iPad and can't add a photo, but if you're really curious pm me your email address and I can send you photos.)

 

[Rip Tide]

Where I was fishing just recently there was a strong dragon fly hatch
After I figured it out, I literately caught dozens of trout on a fly called a Kennebago Muddler.
Basically it's a Hornberg with a muddler head
With dragon fly and damsel nymphs, the fish expect to see them swimming toward shore.

 

[planettrout]

Most of my lake fishing is done on the East slope of the Sierra Nevada range. I use a lot of different patterns including soft hackles, damsels, dragons, ant patterns, beetles, caddis patterns, midges, Callibaetis, scuds, water boatmen, snail patterns,leech patterns, baitfish and attractors...Here are a few that work for me:



Sheep Creek Special



K.G.'s Spring Creek Special (scud)...Hey Kelly, where's the 2.0 version of this?



Stayner Ducktail...



UPGRADED PUNK PERCH...



HONEYBUN...



SH PT / Partridge & Peacock...

...almost anything that this guy ties works in the lakes we frequent:

www.flyfishstillwaters.com - Fly Fish Stillwaters


PT/TB

 

[stenacron]

This list is fluid depending on the location (lowland/mud bottom versus alpine/rock bottom), time of year, and insect activity... but all things being equal, and without contributing factors like hatch activity, my list would probably be:
-1) PT Chironomid (olive/red rib)
-2) Smoky/olive Scud
-3) Rickard's Callibaetis Nymph
-4) Mity Mouse (beadhead)
-5) Rickard's Stillwater Nymph

Time of day has an effect as well. Early morning it will be scuds and/or chironomids to start. Later in the day The Rickard's nymphs are tough to beat.

Noses poking through the surface changes everything of course... had a lot of fun yesterday casting to cruising fish with a #16 yellow Comparamerger.

FWIW - Here's my primary stillwater box... more often than not my answers are found herein (although I do carry other boxes as well).

 

[rangerrich99]

Don't see anything wrong with the OP's list; any of those should catch fish.

My list, as usual, is a bit left field:

Pink hoppers (spring)
Yellow or brown hoppers
orange rubber-legged stimulator
PMX
BWO
PMD
Blue dun

Magnum purple simi seal leech with and w/o a beadhead
Brown with green flash bugger
Olive damsel nymph
Tunghead hares ear
Prince nymph

My usual set up, especially on new water, is a hopper/dropper. So if I went fishing with you tomorrow I'd probably rig a yellow hopper and tie a damsel nymph or a hares ear 2 ft. below it. Of course, actual weather and water conditions would affect my final choices, but most of the time a hopper /dropper set up is effective for me.

Peace.

 

[cduff]

Quite the lists! Thanks guys! great looking flies

 

[j1973s]

I like the following:
Various wooly buggers, especially in kind of an off (blood) red or black. Use a bead head 90% of the time
Prince nymph bead head or not
Soft hackle in #14 or #16
Zug Bug
Various small streamers in #12 or 10. Mickey fin, Little brook trout, grey ghost or bomber
Am now using midge nymph patterns more and more. I fish them straight down, usually close to the bottom. Saw Phil Rowley at the Denver fly show and a light went on for me.
Regarding dries, usually something black or dark. Amazingly, trout regularly smash a big stimulator or Royal Wulff when twitched after you leave it motionless for a bit.
Recommend reading some of the books by Peter Lapsley the English author. Many more trout fishers fish still water than streams in the UK and they seem to have still waters down to a science.

 

[JoJer]

You'll shake out the patterns eventually. FWIW, my one (generally) sound bit of still water advice is to always fish under a foam line if the wind is making them.

 

[pquad]

One of my favorite stillwater patterns is one of my own, the P-Quad.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQTSbA6Orls[/ame]

Other favorites are:
Crystal Minnow
Various colored and sized Wooly Buggers
Chironomid patterns
Scud Missile
Daphnia Cluster Bomb
Canadian Brown Mohair Leech

Mark

 

[Joey Bagels]

Day in, day out, I always wound up with a gold ribbed hare's ear, zug bug, scud, or bugger tied on my leader when fishing the Wyoming high plains.
Recently I've added the Rickards Stillwater and Callibaetis nymph to the rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tpo]

For the stillwaters I fish here in Northern California, my "go to" flies are:

1) Midges, particularly size 12-14 red pheasant tail blood midge pupa with and without silver brass beads or clear glass beads. Other red bodies work fine too, flex floss, v-rib, etc.

2) Wooly Bugger variations, such as wiggle tail nymphs, seal bugger, crystal buggers, Denny's stillwater bug, etc. In recent years, I've been fishing them smaller, mostly in size 10-12, for colors I like black, brown, rust and burnt orange.

3) Sheep Creek specials in size 10-14. Chenille or peacock body.

4) Callibaetis patters like GR Hares Ear, I tie a variation using tan turkey biots, some with/without a flashback. Size 12-16.

5) Others I occasionally or seasonally use are: my own damsel patterns in brown and olive, prince nmyphs in about size 12-16, small emerger patterns (hare ear body with a few wraps of small/sparse wet fly hackle), and occasionally a snail pattern (larger wiggle tail with the tail broken off short works great).

Tom

 

[wthorpe]

Folks often seem disdainful of catching fish on damsel dries, but a couple friends and I got some on a store bought pattern that has a blue foam body and some clear plastic wings. Of course, rises to a damsel dry tend to be quite vigorous. I saw a great video on fish eating damsels; the music is a bit much but you can mute it:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q_T5KJpI28[/ame]

 

[bigspencer]

In June....Hendrickson..floating nymph and dun(high floating, standard hackle Red Quill) can produce all afternoon and the spinner(one wing in air or spent) in evening.
Scuds...have never used KG's pattern but think I'll find it and buy
Muddler(Dan Bailey's original tie)...really anything similar to a Hornberg or Muddler
Caddis(emerger/adult) ...in a few ponds/bogs
Pale Evening Dun(emerger/spinner)...in a few ponds
Green Drake(emerger/spinner): Hornberg or better emerger/White Wulff(spinner)
Hexagenia(emerger/spinner): Hornberg/White Wulff
Cricket/Beetle/Hopper...sometimes on top, other times sunken a bit

 

[plecain]

I was pretty successful today with a #12 Chernobyl Ant on a pond.

 

[j1973s]

Day in, day out, I always wound up with a gold ribbed hare's ear, zug bug, scud, or bugger tied on my leader when fishing the Wyoming high plains.
Recently I've added the Rickards Stillwater and Callibaetis nymph to the rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad you mentioned the Zug Bug. A fly I should use more often and I would advise others to use it. Peacock herl, the more the better.

---------- Post added at 10:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

Most of my lake fishing is done on the East slope of the Sierra Nevada range. I use a lot of different patterns including soft hackles, damsels, dragons, ant patterns, beetles, caddis patterns, midges, Callibaetis, scuds, water boatmen, snail patterns,leech patterns, baitfish and attractors...Here are a few that work for me:



Sheep Creek Special



K.G.'s Spring Creek Special (scud)...Hey Kelly, where's the 2.0 version of this?



Stayner Ducktail...



UPGRADED PUNK PERCH...



HONEYBUN...



SH PT / Partridge & Peacock...

...almost anything that this guy ties works in the lakes we frequent:

www.flyfishstillwaters.com - Fly Fish Stillwaters


PT/TB

Caught my largest Stillwater trout (actually a char) on a Stayner

Ducktail. Was a 30 1/2" Splake (not 30"). Should use this fly more.

 

[Joey Bagels]

Glad you mentioned the Zug Bug. A fly I should use more often and I would advise others to use it. Peacock herl, the more the better.

---------- Post added at 10:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

Caught my largest Stillwater trout (actually a char) on a Stayner



Ducktail. Was a 30 1/2" Splake (not 30"). Should use this fly more.

I never go near water without a few zig bugs. For a season or two, it was my main Stillwater pattern. It looks enough like a damsel, Callibaetis, scud, or water boatman to get eaten a lot. Plus it's easy to tie and keep stocked. I carry weighted and unweighted and most recently used them during an Isonychia hatch on the Guadalupe River a couple of seasons ago. Definitely one of my favorite flies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tex]

Anything with partridge hackle. I love pheasant tail nymphs with a partridge hackle, or even simpler an Olive vinyl D-rib body nymph with a partridge hackle. 18 seconds to tie and will kill fish all day!!!

 

[planettrout]

Anything with partridge hackle. I love pheasant tail nymphs with a partridge hackle, or even simpler an Olive vinyl D-rib body nymph with a partridge hackle. 18 seconds to tie and will kill fish all day!!!

Nah...they don't work at all...




PT/TB