The 12 Flies EVERY Fly Angler Needs In Their Box | Ep. 74

last I check there are approximately 85 billion fly patterns on the market with something like 36,000 new ones being added every single month for the fly angler who really just wants to keep things simple especially when it comes to picking the right fly where do you start which of those endless patterns do you actually need and which ones were just tied to catch the attention of the angler and maybe not so much the fish believe or not you can trim your fly box down to 12 patterns and have plenty of variety to catch 99% of the trout that you encounter listen to the rest of this episode of untangled to discover the patterns that every fly angler needs in their [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] box this is untangled fly fishing for everyone presented by Ventures fly company hey every everybody Welcome to it this is untangled and I am your host Spencer Durant ready for yet another week of podcast excellence and I would appreciate it if y'all would bear with me a little bit this week I am just getting over being extremely sick I I was so sick I did not fish for eight days and you know when that happens that's serious if I'm not out on the water and it oh my goodness it kicked my it kicked my butt I have not been that sick in a long time but we're not here to talk talk about that we're here to talk all about fly fishing and specifically this week we're going to talk about downsizing your fly box and if you if you could only fish with 12 Flies what would those flies be we get a lot of questions surrounding flies which I mean shouldn't be too much of a surprise given that we are a fly company we sell flies it's in our name that's where Ventures fly Co got started right um but we we get a lot of questions and I I've received quite a few lately from listeners and viewers who keep asking some variation of the question of like what flies would you fish with if you only had a few with you and one listener uh Austin from Texas he put it this way he wrote in and said what are the main fly patterns that would be a good idea to keep in your fly box why explaining the patterns and their significance SL usage would be appreciated I am a beginner demystifying patterns would help me tremendously well Austin you came to the right place and I love I really do I love that you asked the why that's just that's a question that a lot of beginners don't always ask I don't I don't think that they really need to but obviously you listen to untangled and for anybody who might be new here or just found us answering the why behind questions is a huge part of why vfc exists in the first place play and why we've created all this media because the why behind what we do things isn't always explained very well to beginners and I firmly believe along with everybody else here at vfc that if you want to be proficient at something you want to get good at it especially fly fishing it's not enough to just know okay here's how you cast here's how you catch a fish you've got to understand the why behind doing certain things because once you understand that everything else clicks you understand it on a deeper level and you become come much better at it so it's a key to being good at something and I I just really appreciate Austin that you uh you asked that to to start us off so with that in mind folks you're going to want to get comfy maybe maybe grab a plate of wings get your diet coke ready because I'm going to reveal the 12 patterns that I think every angler needs in their box I'm going to explain why those flies should be there and then what those flies represent so when would you pick this fly versus a different fly so we'll really dive into it and I I did spend some time uh going through my own fly box and looking at it and thinking all right well what would I actually cut mine down to because I don't have only 12 patterns in my box I've got closer to 20 24 maybe maybe about two dozen I tie it's just a lot of variations of emergers and cripples so I have a lot of different bugs like that in my box but I If I Only Could Have like one or two emerger patterns I could get by with it I I just I always have this existential fear of it not having enough emergers especially during mayfly hatches so I have I'm always tying up new patterns I'm always trying new ones out and it's proven to proven to work for me we were on the green a couple weeks ago me and Alex and uh those the cripples that I tied actually saved my bacon and a couple of the emergers so we'll talk about those if you don't know what a is or an emerger is I'll get into those in a minute so don't worry like I said get confid we're going to be here for a minute going through these flies and I I have not listed these in order of importance or anything these are just the patterns so uh if you want to take notes I mean feel free you might want to all right we're going to start with fly number one and it is the parachute Adams uh this is arguably the most popular Dry Fly ever created and that's because it really imitates just about any kind of adult aquatic insect it can pass as a mayfly or a ctis uh I know folks who fish eat really small ones even during mid chates and sometimes have success with them as well uh I've also known folks who fish really big ones during stonefly hatches and sometimes that works they're not as good of good of an imitation of stoneflies just because uh they're they're not tapered correctly they're not built the same way stoneflies are but and a pinch maybe they'll work uh they just look buggy though that's that's the selling point of the parachute atoms they just look like a bug now I fish a parachute atams during mayfly hatches and I also use it as the top fly of my dry dropper rig on a lot of small streams and like I said the small parachute atams can even work well during Mitch hatches it can kind of unmatch the hatch in those situations with the mid hatches I think that's why some folks will throw it I recommend having a parachute Adams you want these in your box uh anywhere from size 12 to 18 I've got a couple of each with a heavy emphasis on the 14s and the 16s I got a lot of those you will never be unhappy if you have a bunch of these in your box it's a good searching fly and that's a term that you might hear other flies referred to as often and all that means is Anglers are using that fly when they're casting and looking for fish but they're not casting directly through risers they throw it out there looking to see all right is a fish there are they going to hold there because the parachute atoms will just bring some fish up it just looks buggy it's a good good fly to have you can never have enough of them in my opinion so that's fly number one fly number two the elk hair ctis so ctis and mayflies those are your two well and midges so there's three I don't I do not want to Short change the mge you never want to Short Change of mge right well those three species of bugs those are the main food items in every Trout River in the world if you've got a mayfly Aid and a ctis imitation of some kind in your box for both their nymph and their Dry Fly stages and you go out to a trout stream you're going to catch fish it really is that simple it doesn't get too much more complex than that yes we've got Stone flies and we've got terrestrials and we've got stuff like scuds and sa bugs and worms and those are great you need them I I believe you need those other flies but if you just boil it down if you want to get super simple just to have like I don't know nine flies ctis mayflies that that is the absolute be bones but we're we're going to go a little bit beyond that uh trout will always recognize one of those three main species of insects which is why you always want to have some kind of caus imitation in there and the C catus it's a staple for a reason it's famous it just works very very well for imitating adult ctis flies it's also another fantastic searching fly just like the parachute Adams and it is a go-to for Anglers from early summer uh all the way through fall uh the elkar catus is great to use in a dry dropper rig because it floats High it can support some heavier nms I'll fish in El car catus often especially if I'm fishing rougher water then uh I I'll I'll throw the elk or cat on instead of the parachute atoms because it just floats a little bit better I found uh sizes 12 to 18 are perfect that is what I would recommend having in your box the color H I haven't found the colors matter too much but a variety of colors brown and tan are going to cover your bases pretty well uh black as well that'll work for you uh fly number three the sparkle done now the sparkle done it imitates an emerging or crippled mayfly when mayflies and ctis do this too mides do this as well but we really focus in on it with the mayflies because it's a very the trout seem to key in on those a little bit more right uh so when mayflies change from their laral form which is what we would call the nymph right they're living underneath the water they're in their nymph stage and then they change into that adult which we also call The Dun stage they emerge into that adult stage and we call these emergers and as an emerger they often will get stuck in the surface film of the river while they are crawling out of their shuck and their wings are drying off before they can fly away from the water and go do whatever bugs do up in the trees the sparkle done this arguably might be my favorite fly I've talked to Alex about it so much lately I think he's sick hearing me say oh it's just TI on a sparkle done but I love them they're so good the sparkle D it sits really low in the water and it looks just like a mayfly that's stuck in the surface film trying to get its wings dry or to escape That Shook that I talked about this is my go-to fly during M mayfly hatches and I will often catch more fish on the sparkle done than I do on any of the other mayfly patterns I have in my box I fish these in sizes 18 and 20 I don't really vary from those sizes at all those are just my go-to I I focus on like an Adam's gray body and then some olive bodies as well uh the focus really is on darker bodies though I found that really helps it out I and I I cannot I I cannot overstate how much I love the sparkle done and how well it works for me during M play hatches you just got to have them all right fly number I'm I'm going to forget the number so we're just going to go on to the next one here I didn't number them on my notes here I I should have uh the next fly though uh is the zebra mge now we've talked a lot about ctis and we talked about our mayflies also got to mention her midges right midges are a huge food source in every river midges are the only bug that's going to hatch year round you'll find them hatching in the winter even when the mayflies and the ctis are not hatching are great for that I love them uh you need some kind of mij Nymph imitation just because of how prevalent midges are everywhere there's tons of them they're in every river you've got to have them and it is hard to find a better mij nymph imitation than the zebra mge I have caught some of my best fish ever on a zebra Midge I caught uh a couple of years ago well no it was closer to shoot how long has it been four years ago since I moved to Wyoming the I caught a 25 in Rainbow on a size 18 zebra Midge right some of my best fish have come on zebra mides you you just can't go wrong with them it's super simple to tie that's the great thing you can tie these up yourself I taught my wife how to tie flies and the first fly I taught her how to tie was the zebra mge and hers look great I caught fish on the ones that she tied for me it's fantastic you're never going to have a hard time finding zebra midges they're for sale on every Fly Shop we've got Bunches of them uh in our fly collections they just flat out work all right you're going to want these in sizes 14 to 20 that's really going to cover you for some of the bigger and then down to the small stuff next fly is the hair's ear hair's ears are an old school fly that I don't see as many Anglers using as I used to and I I don't know why that is but I I love them it's kind of a dood all nymph that imitates just about every form of aquatic insect except midges you can use a really big stonefly n or a really big hairer to imitate stonefly n so I actually do that that here in my neck of the woods in Wyoming we get a lot of big stonefly hatches and the trout really key in on them and I was all out of my favorite stonefly patterns the only thing I had was like a size 10 hairer a giant one threw that on and I caught Plenty of Fish one day during a pretty good stonefly hatch so those they'll work for that in their smaller sizes they can pass as a ctis or a mayfly na it's just they're indispensable every angler needs to have some hairs ears they work great in Lakes too so even if you're not on Rivers they're they're a great lake n uh they're just a wonderful wonderful allaround bug I I do like them in sizes 14 to 18 but you can even go up to a 10 or an eight if you want to imitate your stonefly NS with the bigger ones and in that same vein I also am going to recommend that everybody has a Frenchie or a feasant tail right you can have both but I'm not going to list both because that would put us to 13 instead of 12 but either one of these the Frenchie is just a version of the pheasant tail I like it cuz it's a little bit simpler a quicker tie I don't have to do the legs or the wing case so that saves me a couple of steps when I'm tying up these bugs so I fish a lot of Frenchies I also think there's something about that little hot spot that the trouch just love so I I love tying those on as well uh it works as a as a mayfly nymph but it will also pass as a catus nymph as well again I prefer the Frenchie because they're a little bit easier to tie than the pheasant tail and I think the Flash and the contrast of colors on the body in the Frenchie make it more enticing to fish one of the very few things that we know for sure about trout is that they are attracted to contrasting colors they they love that contrast and the Frenchie does that quite nicely with the hot spot and then the collar and then the darker body there's just there's a lot of contrast going on this is one of my personal favorite go-to droppers uh whenever I'm fishing a high mountain stream or any kind of River from early summer to late fall I've almost always got a Frenchie on it's almost a running joke between me and Alex whenever we go out on the water that oh yeah I caught that on a Frenchie yeah Alex guess what I caught it on and he's almost always going to say Frenchie and he's usually getting them on midges or or some new ctis NYSE that he dreams up because Alex is always dreaming something up like that it's kind of fun anyway uh you'll want your Frenchies or your pheasant tails in your box from sizes 14 all the way to size 18 all right our next pattern is the last chance uh I mentioned earlier that I don't feel like I ever have enough of a variety of crippled mayfly patterns or emerging mayfly patterns any of those mayflies that sit in the surface film and act as either an emerger or a there are so many variations there so many different takes on those that I feel like I never have enough and I was actually thinking about this the other day why do we have so many different variations of it and that's a question that I'm sure if I sat down and really thought through it I could come up with a A logical more in-depth answer but I think the short of it is that there are so many different ways in emerging mayly can appear to a trout that we just have a lot of different variations of them for that exact reason but the last chance you've got your sparkle done that I talked about earlier that can pass as a but that's a lot better I in my experience I found that's a lot better as an emerger pattern than a and if the fish are really keyed in on the cripples if they're looking for those then the last chance is hard to beat and I've even found during mayfly hatches when they're eating a lot of adults they'll often key in on the instead if you throw that out there instead of the adult because it's easier for them to get at it's sitting lower and there's less chance of it escaping before the trout gets there so often they'll key in on that sometimes more so than the adults in fact when Alex and I were on the green a couple of weeks ago that's exactly what happened the second day that we fished I caught all of my fish on a so they're just a they're an indispensable fly for that exact reason the last chance in particular is a time tested pattern it was developed on the Henry's Fork over there in last chance Idaho and I found that it works just about anywhere even with that uh I tie these in 14s and 16s you don't generally need to go much smaller than that for cripples it at least in my experience if if you go much smaller than that uh they they do become pretty difficult to tie so keep that in mind your next fly though your next fly here is the griffi natat now the griffi that it's more it's not an exact replica of it but it works really really good during Midge hatches it imitates either a single mid if you tie them really small or it can imitate a cluster of midges either way it looks fishy and trout love them it is just hard to beat the Griff net uh whenever fish whenever you find trout that are taking smaller flies and you don't have an exact match for those I found that a griffus natat can help car you through they're just they're solid uh I do tie them small though I like them in sizes 18 to 22 so I go pretty small with the griffi snats again because the really small ones can imitate single midges whereas your 18s can imitate a cluster maybe now before anybody gets worried that I'm going to get to the end of this list and not have a streamer of some kind I've Got The Woolly bugger that's your next fly in my opinion you could also switch out the wooy bugger with some kind of kind of rabbit leech like a slump Buster maybe but either way you need either a woolly bugger or a rabbit leech because it's just it's always good to have a streamer pattern around streamers are meant to imitate Bait fish other small fish croads sculpin or even leeches they work very well to trigger a Trout's predatory response and initiate a strike in the same way that lurs do they they go by and the fish is either hungry and wants it or the fish is aggressive and wants it away from it it's being Territorial and so it goes to eat it either way it's going to trigger that predatory response from a trout uh The Woolly bugger it's so good because they imitate just about anything and you can fish them on the swing you can strip them you can dead drift them and The Woolly bugger will just get the job done I've also found though that I really like what rabbit leeches especially like a slump Buster I really like how they appear in the water I just love how they swim I I I think they're a solid bug and I don't think you go wrong with having either of those you definitely want to size up a little bit though I would tie these in sizes 6 through 10 if you're going to focus on just that for your streamer selection another fly that I would be completely remiss if I did not mention is my favorite Stone vly Nymph in the world a Pats rubber legs I think every trout angler needs a good big stonefly nymph even if there aren't a ton of stone flies around you chances are that big stonefly n is still going to attract some fish and I've been fishing the patch rubber legs at a lot the last three or four years and I've caught more fish on that nymph than I can count it is it just it it's like it wakes up in the morning it grabs its lunch box it goes out there and it just gets to work it just does the job doesn't complain it's the ideal employee and Dad gam if you don't want one of those in your fly box am I right well they they sink like a rock it's durable and the fish just love it I found on one of my local streams here there are a lot of stone flies and the Pats rubber legs is the one fly that they will consistently take from early in the spring all the way through fall you can't really fish the creek in the winter it's at the bottom of this really Steep Canyon and it it I up and like the there's no way to access it it gets so icy and covered in snow but when you can get in there I've caught fish on patch rubber legs every month of the year except like December January February so except for those three months out of the year I can get into fish reliably with that Pat River leag they're they're just fantastic I I fish these in a size 8 through 12 but the ones that I prefer the most are size 10 uh and this is the bug that I most often use as my uh dropper these days to be completely hon honest with you just by virtue where I live and the fish that I'm going for I pick up a pth rubber legs almost all the time I love it now to go with that path rubber legs that's a pretty big nyph right you're going to need a big dry fly to hold it up and that's where your stimulator or your chubby Chernobyl one of the two if I had to pick I'd pick the chubby Chernobyl because it's easier to tie and it's way more durable than the stimulator however the stimulator has a lot going for it because uh they probably float a little bit better and they do a better job of imitating bigger Stone flies I think than the chubby but the chubby is just I I love the chubby right the chubby can imitate like a big terrestrial insect and this goes for the stimulator as well right they can imitate those big terrestrial insects uh like a grasshopper or they can pass as that big stonefly uh I found that Chubbies tied in different colors work well during stonefly hatches and again I just love that the chubby is so easy to tie and it floats so well and they're really durable in fact last summer I fished the same chubby for almost a month before it finally got demolished and I had to tie something else on I I love flies that are like that that just last and just go for you and the flies that the flies that really tug at your heartstrings when you finally lose them to a tree right it it's okay to lose them into a fish but to get it stuck in a tree that just feels personal in some ways uh I tie these in sizes 8 to 12 but again the uh size that I fish the most often is a size 10 and during the summer that is my top fly in my dry dropper rig I love it can't get enough of the Chubbies and rounding out our dozen is some kind of egg or glow bug imitation I might get a little bit of flak for this but I think everybody needs some kind of egg pattern or glow bug in their box when trout spawn eggs become a food source now you shouldn't ever fish to Trout that are actively spawning you don't want to do that because that can impact the next generation of trout in any given River but for example think about we're we're in the spring right now our rainbows and our Cutthroat are spawning and the Browns if there are brown sh around will be stacked up nearby to eat the eggs that drift out of the nests which we call Reds and that same thing happens again in the fall when the brown trout spawn the rainbows will stack up behind those Reds to eat the eggs as they drift out and eggs are they're a well-known food source fish recognize them and they're present in rivers for a good chunk of the year so it never hurts to have a couple of those in fact we've got an egg pattern here that Alex tied up and that thing saved our bacon this winter more than more than either of us really wanted to admit probably those were those were gra flies for us is winter uh they're a great attractor n that just get the attention to Trout I like them in a size 10 to 14 that'll it'll really do the job for you but those right there folks those are your 10 your 12 pardon me almost Short change two flies there those are your 12 flies that I would recommend everybody have in their box again I have a little bit more variety just because I like to tie a lot of different emergers I've been trying to handle a lot of different nymph patterns lately I'm trying to improve my nying game so I do have quite a few of those in my box like I said I I probably got close to two dozen uh patterns and one that was hard for me to leave off this list honestly was a paragon I've been fishing Paragon more and more lately they're just they're great on the smaller streams because their profile is so small they'll still sink really well but they don't make as big of a splash so they're really great on the smaller Clear Water where the fish are a little bit spookier but you still need to get an down to them cuz I don't want to dry fly for whatever reason I I've really enjoyed those that was the only one that was a that was tough for me to leave off the list but I'm confident that if you fish the bugs on this list you're going to be fine for like 99% of the trout that you run into now if you've got questions about any of the Flies that I mentioned here or anything else please do not hesitate to drop us a line and get in touch I'd love to chat with you more about flies but enough about flies because we you got the Q&A section of the show coming on up we've got some wonderful questions so get yourself comfortable and get ready for [Applause] that our first question this week comes to us from Jack from Ohio he writes in and says I am learning how to fly fish in small local ponds but larger Lakes probably need a different approach given wind in terrain I have been using a 58 9t Rod should I consider a longer Rod I also have used have mainly fished woolly buggers and a few streamers any tips to attack these Lakes from the bank hey Jack great question I appreciate this a lot and I think a lot of us are thinking about Lake fishing right now because for those of us in the mountainous areas runoff has begun and the lakes are just starting to ice out and one thing that you'll find especially that Jack articulated here is that Lakes can be kind of tricky I enjoy a 10t 6 weight on larger Lakes I fish those quite a bit that extra reach is nice along with the extra punch you get from a six weight it can be a little bit easier to cast further with those but they are certainly not necessary you can do plenty of lake fishing with just your 9 foot5 weight so I don't want you to feel like you've got to run out and buy a 10 foot6 weight to be effective at Lakes I'm I'm not the world's best Lake angler I'll admit that right off the bat of all the fly fishing that I've done my Still Water game needs the most love I I'm not Pati as patient as I should be and it really shows up on the Still Water because I I just get frustrated and I'll just say I to heck with it go find a river somewhere because that's what I'd rather fish anyways uh but I've had personally I've had the most luck uh fishing lakes by using a nymph setup where I fish some kind of micro Leach and then a coronoid beneath an indicator a coronoid for those who don't know it's basically such a giant mge that hatches in Still Water I'll tie those onto my tippet with a fancy knot that fly Anglers call it a nonslip monoloop but it's just the same thing as renaut uh again because we use it in fly fishing we've got to give it a fancy name because heaven forbid we call it a renaut whatever all this knot does is lets the fly move around more freely in the water which gives it a more lifelike appearance I've found that that helps on Still Water uh I just tend to have more success with that rig than I do with stripping streamers but stripping streamers is definitely more engaging it is a lot more fun so if you're looking for something to keep your mind occupied I would I would go with the stripping streamers route the key with lakes and ponds though is and this is something that once I finally realized this did make my my my Lake fishing become less arduous because once I finally understood this it was I I found a lot more success but the key is just a fish around structure just like we do on Rivers we're always looking for certain kinds of structure we want a riffle or we want a pool or we want a run or we want an Eddy those are specific those are water types right the structure would maybe be like the boulders or the logs but the boulders and logs and the Rocks they create a lot of those different water types you want to look for the same kinds of things on a lake sunken logs rocks steep drop offs weed beds things like that they all provide places for trout to hide out from predators but they can dart out and grab food as it drifts by and I really want to draw your attention to the drop offs the weed beds anywhere that there's a transition like if it goes from really shallow to really deep suddenly that's a drop off right on that transition line especially in still water fish will hang out on that all the time it's also a good idea if there's a point on the lake where it juts out the shoreline juts out into the lake a little bit more and forces a point where all the fish would have to swim around it if they're cruising the shore that's another great place to set up shop uh really though you're looking for anywhere that a fish can hang out and catch some catch or Ambush some food as it drifts by or as the fish swims around that's going to be a great place there there's this one Lake back in Utah that I used to fish all the time when I lived in Utah it was my favorite to go for ice off fishing because if you could make it through the snow drifts if you could Buck your snow drifts and get on the north end of it there was this beautiful drop off about 10 15t off the bank and if you just put a couple of midges right there a couple of those Coran mid I was talking about right on that drop off and and put them like8 n ft down it was just money You' catch more fish she know what to do with including some really big ones I saw a guy catch like a six lb Cutthroat and a tiger trap that was like 25 26 in long it was huge doing that same thing now I caught 13-inch rainbows all day but he caught these huge fish doing the same thing I was doing just fishing that drop off it's it's a really big shelf that goes for a long ways on that Lake and I I can't overstate just how important it is to fish on those transition points that that's going to be a big key for you and having success in steel water and we actually do have an entire podcast episode dedicated to this topic I'll link that in the podcast description so you can have a listen to that if you want Jack thank you so much for sending your question on me and I appreciate it Shane from Wisconsin has our next question writes in and says now that I am 50 my eyesight is suffering slowly and I find myself struggling to tie delicate lines what do you recommend for helping an angler who struggles tying in that case I've always been skeptical skeptical of those line time gadgets I see at fishing shows and by the way I have no idea what people are doing with Diet Coke or Pepsi Diet Mountain Dew the Shane this is a really good question and you know this might hurt you a little bit I just can't do the Diet Dew I know tons of folks who love it and Alex loves Mountain Dew zero I mean that he he loves that more than Koke zero he won't admit that but I'll I'll go out maybe he will but I I'll say it first I'll break the news here first he he loves that stuff I it just tastes so off to me Mountain Dew zero or the diet de it's so bitter you it's just it's hard you know you the Mountain Dew it's so perfect the fully Leed stuff that a diet version of it just it can't live up to that Perfection that is a nice cold crisp Mountain Dew oh all right this ain't a soda podcast I'll get off I'll get off that uh one of my good fishing buddies here in Wyoming I talked to him about this he's 60 and I asked him I said well what do you use cuz he's got a few different uh things he's tried out to help him tie on flies I tie a lot of his flies on for him because one thing I'll I'll make fun of my old friends for just about everything about getting old except the eyesight issue because I know that's coming for me and I I'm I'm not going to make fun of anybody for it because I know I'm going to deal with it I'm already deaf in one ear so I can make fun of them for not hearing but never make fun of my buddies for eyesight issues anyways I asked him what he likes to use and he's got a pair of flip down magnifiers I'm wearing a hat if you're watching the video podcast you can see they just clip onto his hat brim right here and he can flip him down uh just so that he can see they're just they rest right over his eyes and he can just tie right just like that I asked him how he likes them he says they make all the difference in the world he's also tried those click expandable reading glasses that Kelly Gallop cells and he likes those but he still prefers those flip down magnifiers so th those are the two that he's really extensively used my suggestion Shane would be to try a bunch of different ones until you find one that works for you often the gadgets you see at the fly fishing shows do work so I would not hesitate to put some faith in them uh but thank you for for sending that question in Shane I appreciate it Marvin from Missouri has got another question for us and he says Hey Spencer love your podcast you may have touched on this but here goes anyway I have been looking to get a pair of sunglasses there seems to be so many variations not to mention prices I primarily fish on lakes for panish and such none of which are crystal clear if you know what I mean is there such a thing as an allaround pair of sunglasses that is for sunny cloudy and all faces in between thanks for your podcast keep the line tight hey Marvin thanks for listening I appreciate that you listen to the show thank you so much uh and thank you for your question as well I I appreciate you giving me the chance to go back onto this topic I'm I'm like strangely passionate about sunglasses mostly because it blows my mind when I see people fishing what any kind of fishing just being out on the water even without sunglasses I don't understand it they're an essential piece of gear in the gear section of of our beginner fly fishing master class for a reason right you're out on the water for hours you got all that light reflecting off the water and if you don't take care of your eyes you're literally going to be in a world of hurt it is not going to be fun you need a good pair of sunglasses and not only do you need any sunglasses you need polarized sunglasses because the polarization of the lenses cuts the glare as much as possible so it's less strain on your eyes and it's got the added benefit of enabling you to see into the water a little bit depending on water Clarity and whatnot and and Lighting and such those polarized sunglasses you need them you can get a 20 polarized is polarized okay you can get a $20 pair at a gas station or at Walmart or whatever or you can go spend a good chunk of chains on a real fancy pair it doesn't matter you've got to have polarized sunglasses all right I'll step off my Soap Box uh for your allaround uh fishing I would recommend a brown or an Amber lens that is is going to be your your best allaround lens color uh I I wear Blues sometimes but blue can be I don't know it's just a little too gray when it gets really dark Amber lenses can kind of run into that as well but I've I've just found that Amber or brown lenses really work well for me as an allround lens color and again you can go with whatever brand you like but I I'm not going to push you towards any brand in particular but I I personally wear Costa and bajio lenses those are the two that I I wear all the time and that depends on the day because I like one Brand's lens color versus another Brand's lens color so I'll I'll switch them out but I am almost always with that brown or Amber lens it's just they work well when it's cloudy they're fantastic in the sun they're just fantastic to have and as a little side note here I'll tell you as well that I was fishing or I've been fishing with a pair of low light lenses they're yellow they're like shooting glasses basically but they're polarized and oh my goodness when it's super cloudy and overcast those make all the difference in the world I was blown away I I could see so much better it was it was fantastic so if you don't mind carrying extra pair of glasses around you have the money for two pairs maybe take a look at a low light lens I was really really impressed with how it did for me uh I also did an entire episode on sunglasses as well link that in the podcast description so that you can go into that in a little bit more detail if you so choose Thank you so much for sending that question in our next question comes to us from a KC from Utah writes in and says how do I fish deeper holes my local stream for the most part is pretty shallow most of it is about 1 to 3 ft deep but there are a couple holes that are way deeper like 4 to 8 ft deep another are good fish in those holes cuz my dad is hooked into a good brown one of them and they just look too good not have fish what tips do you have for deeper water flies to use dep to fish Etc Casey this is a good question thank you for sending it in uh these deeper pools they they can feel intimidating and speaking of pools we did just release a masterclass episode all about fly fishing pools I'll link that in the podcast description I think y'all might find that very Illuminating and dare I say hilarious was one of my best yet uh it it was it really came together well is really happy with it um anyways I'll link that in podcast description for you guys if you want to take a look at video for it now back to the pool itself they can feel intimidating right but they're actually pretty easy to fish the way I like to do it is you want to get to that pool first and just sit there for a minute don't fish don't do anything just sit there and watch because you want to see if there are any trout Rising if the trout are rising then you want to tie a dry fly on try and imitate it as best you can and hit the fish that might be holding uh or hit those fish that are eating the Dry Fly cast to them okay once you've caught them or they've ignored it then I found it helps to tie on a dry dropper rig and you're going to try those to hit those fish that might be holding in that upper third of the water column right once you've done that uh then you can move on your next one but before you do that I also want to recommend that it is helpful to to fish the pool in like a great pattern you want to work close to Far So fish the water closest to you first and then get further out to you and cover as much of it as you possibly can if you if if you visualize a grid on the water and you put your fly in each Square you're going to be in good shape for covering all the water it helps you just make sure you're not missing any place that a fish might be because with pools the fish don't necessarily all hang out in a predictable spot they're pretty unpredictable so you want to cover all the water just to make sure you've really done as much as you can to catch the fish that are in those pools now if you thrown your dries in your dry dropper you're still not getting anything or you think like KC does here that there are a lot of bigger fish down lower then you tie on either a double nymph rig to get your flies all the way to that bottom third of the water column or you can tie on a heavy streamer and pull it through the pool as well again though make sure you're working that pool in a grid pattern close to far uh like I said fish are going to hold in random spots throughout the pools because usually when you get into these pools there's very little current and there's not a whole lot of structure that's very easy to see from the surface so it will feel like the fish are kind of just suspended randomly throughout the pool and unless you see that clear structure in the pool there's really not a Sure Fire way to decide where in the pool those fish are going to hold so if you approach it in that rigid gridlike manner to make make sure that you cover all the water that you possibly can you won't miss out on potentially catching those big fish and specifically just make sure that you're just getting down you asked about the depth KC just make sure you're getting down on the bottom right and you know your flies are on the bottom because you can feel them or you're getting hung up on the bottom that that would be the depth to you get down there fish with nyss but cover all of the water column don't just focus on dries or nymphs cover all of it because you might be surprised where those fish are holding and with that folks that is going to wrap up episode 74 of untangled thank you so much for watching and for listening and for engaging with this show it is so much fun to see folks enjoying this I love the fact that y'all love it uh if you have any questions you would like answered on the show please do not hesitate to send them on in that is what runs this show it's all based on what you folks need to know about fly fishing so please send those questions in there is always a link at the podcast description and you can also help the show out by rating and subscribing wherever you listen to this that helps folks see the show makes it more visible in search results it it Paints the picture or it puts the bat signal up in the air to tell everybody hey go listen to untangled you need to listen to it this is a valuable resource so the more that you rate and subscribe the more visible it makes the show helps us out a ton and hey until next week get out there get out on the water have some fun catch some fish and tight lines everybody

Channel: Ventures Fly Co.

Views: 18,177

Keywords: fly fishing flies, beginner fly fishing, how to choose the right fly fishing fly, how to organize your fly box, how to start fly fishing, fly fishing, fly fishing for beginners, how to fly fish, fly fishing for trout, how to find trout in a river, fly fishing tips, fly fishing basics, fly fishing trout, fly fishing gear, getting started in fly fishing, dry fly fishing, how to fly fish for trout, fly fishing for trout for beginners, how to fly fish for beginners

Id: 7wRJ39MEr28

Length: 44min 3sec (2643 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024