What Are the Top 5 Trout Flies?

First of all, the trout's menu includes aquatic insects, crustaceans, terrestrials, etc. Of all the items on the trout's menu, the aquatic insects are the most abundant and as a result they compromise the bulk of a trout's diet.

Yes, there are many good imitations of minnows like the Mudler Minnow and the terrestrials like the Black Ant, but when you talk about the top 5 flies you are primarily talking about imitating an aquatic insect. Next, you need to understand what stage of the life cycle of the aquatic insect you are attempting to mimic. When imitating the dun, the spinner or the other adult flies, you need to consider a dry fly. If you are attempting to imitate a nymph, emerger, larva or pupa, you will be looking at an entirely different type of fly.

Some of the top nymph imitating patterns are the Gold-ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph, Bead-head Prince Nymph and certainly the Zug Bug nymph would merit some consideration. Some of the top dry fly patterns include the Parachute Adams Pattern, the Royal Wuff and scores more would be in the running as well. While these flies are good old standards and they have contributed to anglers countless numbers of trout, they are none the less generic.

I have been trout fishing for over 25 years and I have yet to see a pheasant tail or a gold-ribbed hare's ear swimming around my feet. I have never even seen a Royal Wuff or even an Adams fly over the water or land in the water. Adams is not an insect at all, but it is the name of the fly tyer who created the pattern many years ago.

What I have seen is Blue Winged Olive nymphs, Quill Gorden emergers, Green Caddis larva (Green Rock Worm) in the water and I have seen Stonefly nymphs as well, but again never a Bead-head Prince unless it was attached to a line.

It is a scientific fact that trout have vision that extends completely around a 320 degree cone except for a small blind spot in the back; and their vision within the center of the cone is most excellent. Scientists also tell us that trout have the ability to discern shades of blue best followed by a lower ability to discern shades of red and the lowest ability in shades of green.

Of course you may catch a few opportunistically feeding trout on the generic fly, especially if the fly is placed in fast moving water where the trout haven't much of a chance to closely examine the fly. But as a rule, the trout will always accept an imitation of something they are currently eating over something they are not eating at the time and they instinctively know the difference. Have you ever seen a trout dart up to your fly and at the last second swerve away without a second look? Just maybe it was the wrong size, profile, shape or color.

If you go to a restaurant and order Porterhouse steak, you will not be happy when the waiter serves you generic ground steak. So don't try to fool your trout into eating generic (ground steak) type flies when they know the sight and the taste of real thing.

The bottom line:

If you want to be a common mediocre angler just use the generic flies and continue to make up excuses when you fail to catch trout or the number of trout you would like to catch. But when everyone calls it a tough day for fishing do you want to be the one that is catching trout by imitating something that is actually hatching and available for the trout to eat.

It is not difficult to check the hatch charts for the stream and for the appropriate time frame that you will be fishing and then equip your fly box with the exact imitation fly patterns that you need.

For example, Blue Winged Olive mayflies are found in almost all streams in the USA and they are among the first aquatic insects to hatch in the spring, so why not take some flies that closely resemble the real Blue Winged Olive duns and nymphs? Take the time to examine the "Perfect Fly" line of flies at TroutU.com and you will be amazed at their life like appearance. These flies have been proven to fool even the most wary trout in the most still waters. So don't try to feed your trout ground steak!