Good Winter Flies

Fly-fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic considerations. It's not even clear if catching fish is actually the point.John Gierach

Over the years I've narrowed down my fly selection to ONLY WHAT WORKS on a reasonable basis.  No, I don't carry a thousand flies (I know someone who does) every time I hit a river.  I have a tailwater bag with tailwater flies and a freestone bag with a freestone selection.  There is some crossover but not a lot.  Some #22 BWO are in the Freestone bag when they start popping up on the Millers and that lonely Wooley Bugger is in the tailwater bag in case I go head to head with a monster brown on the Swift.


Does this selection change with the seasons?  Of course it does.  No ants or beetles on the Swift in January and forget about a sulphur hatch for that matter.  My BEST flies are subsurface and they are small!



Swift River Serendipity

A good red color that the trout can see and the white wing tag makes it work.


BUZZERS - 
Black body, copper rib and that orange wing case make this a dependable fly from the Bubbler to the Pipe.

The Good Old Scud

Use it year round but especially in the late Fall and Winter.  It's the shell back that spells FOOD to a trout!!   

There are more but I have to have these flies with me when the snow begins to fly.