Dry Flies For Trout

DRY FLIES FOR TROUT

Dry flies imitating insects that trout and other game fish feed on are perhaps the most diverse and interesting category of fishing flies. For centuries anglers have been observing the most obvious form of trout behavior: The rise to hatching insects. For much of that time, little thought was given to the less obvious but more important activity below the water’s surface. Even today, when we know that to be more successful we should be fishing more nymphs and emergers, it is hard for us to turn away from the fascination of watching a trout rise to our fraudulent surface-riding offerings.  Is it any wonder that there are hundreds more dry fly patterns than all of the other types put together?

Although dozens of great new dry fly patterns are developed every year, on any given day on any given river an "old-fashioned" Light Chill has the opportunity to out-fish the hottest new “expert’s” innovations. The joy, and the frustration, of fishing with the dry fly is exemplified in the thousands of patterns created to entice the lowly (though often exalted) trout to do what it wants most to do: Eat.

Dry Fly Tying Patterns