Freestone Dreaming

I firmly believe that there are two kinds of fly fishers. The first care only about the river, the trout that are in it and the chance of fishing it in relative solitude (Gierach School of Angling), The second kind of fly fisher cares equally about whether there is a local fly shop, good restaurants and posh accommodations. Can't be too far away from civilization, I guess. - Me

If I had three fly

patterns (excluding the wooley bugger) to start the season off on a freestone river my first choice, if the water is high, would be a weighted stonefly nymph. In fact, you should always carry this fly regardless of the season and in a large size too. Big stones will have up to a three year life span so their meaty presence is always there.

If the water flows are average or lower then the number 1 pattern will be a soft hackle pattern because it represents the active, emerging insect better than anything. The color isn't really of much importance but an orange body seems to top the list.  Springtime sizes will run larger with size 12 down to size 8 filling my fly boxes. A large yellow bodied soft hackle in a size 8 is a killer on the EB.

A third style that is a "must have" is a streamer pattern and I am sold on small marabou patterns. From the Catskills to northern Maine marabou streamers just get it done. I fish these either "on the swing" or on the "high stick" upstream. I took a bow over 20 inches in the rain, on a rising Ware river last spring high sticking like a nymph.  Very deadly!!!

Ok, throw in the Wooley Bugger!! It's a great fly that represents a lot of trout food. I don't have a photo that I like but tie them small (size 12) and ditch the chenille body in favor of peacock (about size strands or swords with do. I like this style because it looks like an insect and not something from Jupiter!  BTW, the WB was supposedly invented by a Pennsylvania tyer in 1967. I saw my first one when I picked one off the ground along the Moose River in northern Maine in the mid 1980's. I made a few casts with it, caught nothing and went back to a respectable smelt pattern.  When I got home I went to the Millers and tried it there.  All hell broke loose and the rest is history.

Notice that I didn't name a particular stone, soft hackle or streamer pattern and the reason is simple: patterns don't really matter that much but presentation does. Most nymphs in a freestone stream are dark on their backs, light on their undersides and are about a size 10 through 14. Dressing up your flies with electric ice blue cosmic shredded dubbing with a tungsten helmet slides you right over to the "attractor" side of the game because the above combinations are not found in nature. When I was a newbie I wanted to catch as many trout as possible. Now it's the "way" they are caught that's important!

Ken