Pattern Recipes

The Adams is a general mayfly searcher pattern that suggests a broad range of duns without imitating any single species. Fish it during mixed or unidentified hatches, on riffled freestone water, and as a prospecting fly through spring and summer. Leonard Halladay tied the original in Mayfield, Michigan, around 1922 at the request of Charles Adams. Halladay's first version used golden pheasant tippets for the tail; the modern standard substitutes mixed grizzly and brown hackle fibers, which is what's tied here.

The Black Ant imitates a wingless terrestrial ant that has fallen from streamside grass, brush, or overhanging trees. Fish it tight to banks, under limbs, or on stillwater edges during warm weather when trout are looking up for small terrestrials. This is a simple dubbed-body dry fly, with a narrow waist and sparse hackle to suggest legs and help it float.

The Black Beauty is Pat Dorsey’s slim midge-pupa pattern for tailwaters, spring creeks, and stillwaters. Its black thread abdomen, fine copper rib, and sparse dubbed thorax match dark chironomid pupae, especially through winter and early spring.

The Black Doctor is a fully dressed Atlantic salmon fly in the Doctor family, distinguished by its black floss body, dark claret hackle, mixed married wing, and scarlet wool butt and head. This dressing follows T. E. Pryce-Tannatt's How to Dress Salmon Flies (1914) and suits traditional presentation or fishing on Atlantic salmon rivers in spring and fall.

The Black Woolly Bugger is a dark streamer for leeches, small sculpins, baitfish, and large swimming nymphs. It works in streams, tailwaters, ponds, and lakes when fish are feeding low or when stained water calls for a strong silhouette. This unweighted version is a good beginner streamer because it teaches tailing, chenille bodies, palmered hackle, and wire ribbing in one durable fly.

This Catskill-style dry fly imitates blue-winged olive mayfly duns during cool, overcast spring and fall hatches on trout streams and rivers. Its slim olive body, divided dun wings, and sparse dun hackle suit the small Baetis and related olives that trout often take selectively.

The Boss is a Pacific salmon and steelhead bucktail attractor for swinging through runs in spring and fall. A flat silver tinsel body gives the fly flash, the natural bucktail wing gives it a slim baitfish profile, and the red saddle hackle throat adds a hot color point at the front. It is a straightforward dressing, but clean tinsel wraps and an even bucktail wing take some control at the vise.

The Bunny Leech imitates a swimming leech, sculpin, or small dark baitfish with the pulse of rabbit fur doing most of the work. Fish it for Pacific salmon and steelhead in fall rivers, tidewater edges, and travel lanes where a broad, slow-moving profile shows well in stained or broken water. The tying is straightforward, but good material control matters because rabbit strips can bulk up quickly.

The Chernobyl Ant is a buoyant foam terrestrial that suggests ants, beetles, hoppers, and stoneflies more than one exact insect. This tan foam variant fishes well in summer pocket water, along grassy banks, and as the dry in a dry-dropper rig. The tie is straightforward, but keeping the foam centered and the legs even takes some care.

The Christmas Island Special is a simple bonefish shrimp and baitfish attractor from the tropical flats of Kiritimati, formerly Christmas Island. It rides hook point up with bead-chain eyes and shows a slim pearl body, sparse wing, and a little flash for clear shallow water. It is a good first saltwater pattern if the tyer can seat bead-chain eyes firmly with figure-eight wraps.

The Chubby Chernobyl is a buoyant terrestrial dry fly that represents a hopper, stonefly, or large attractor insect riding low in broken water. It works well through summer and early fall on freestone streams, pocket water, and grassy riverbanks, and it also makes a steady dry in a dry-dropper rig. The pattern is approachable for tyers with basic foam and rubber-leg control; the main challenge is keeping the foam, wing, and legs centered.

The Comet is a traditional Pacific salmon and steelhead swing fly built around flash, contrast, and a sparse baitfish profile. This silver-body bucktail variant uses a red hackle-fiber tail, flat silver tinsel body, silver rib, sparse bucktail wing, red collar, and black head. Fish it on the swing for coho, chinook, and steelhead in medium to large rivers during spring and fall runs.

The Conehead Woolly Bugger is a weighted streamer that suggests leeches, small baitfish, and large aquatic nymphs. The brass cone helps it reach deeper runs, lake edges, and reservoir drop-offs, and gives the fly a diving action when stripped or swung.

The Crazy Charlie is a sparse flats fly for bonefish, small permit, and other saltwater fish feeding on shrimp and tiny baitfish. This standard bonefish variant uses bead-chain eyes so the fly rides point-up and a slim pearl body that shows well over sand or turtle grass. It is a good first saltwater pattern because the tie is simple, but the proportions need to stay sparse.

The Durham Ranger is a fully dressed, whole-feather-wing Atlantic salmon fly for swinging in salmon rivers. This dressing follows T. E. Pryce-Tannatt's 1914 How to Dress Salmon Flies, page 211, using four equal body sections, yellow-dyed badger body hackle, paired jungle cock and tippet wings, blue cheeks, a crest topping, and blue-and-yellow horns.

The Egg-Sucking Leech is a Pacific salmon and steelhead streamer that suggests a dark leech trailing a loose salmon egg. The black marabou tail pulses in current, the chenille body gives the fly a simple silhouette, and the fluorescent orange head adds a strong trigger in stained water, low light, and fall salmon runs.

The Fat Albert is a high-floating foam terrestrial and attractor dry for hopper banks, beetle water, and summer dry-dropper rigs. This tan-and-brown version uses stacked foam, rubber legs, a poly indicator wing, and a short dry-fly hackle collar to suggest a hopper, cricket, beetle, or small stonefly without matching one insect too tightly. It is a good intermediate tie because the thread segments must hold the foam firmly without cutting it.

The Foam Ant imitates a drowned or struggling ant riding low in the surface film. This hackled black-foam variant floats better than a bare thread ant and is easier for beginners to keep on top. Fish it along grassy banks, under overhanging trees, and on stillwater edges through summer when ants are active.

The Freight Train is a traditional steelhead swing fly for river work from fall through spring. This orange-and-white wet-fly variant shows well in colored water, rides slim in the current, and gives just enough flash and movement for broad tailouts, walking-speed seams, and soft inside edges.

The Gotcha is Jim McVay's classic bonefish pattern, a sparse flats fly that suggests a shrimp, small baitfish, or fleeing bit of bottom forage. Bead-chain eyes make it ride hook point up, and the pearl body with tan wing shows well over sand, marl, and turtle grass. It is a good beginner saltwater tie because the proportions are simple, but the eyes and sparse wing still teach useful flats-fly control.

The Green Highlander is a fully dressed Atlantic salmon classic for clear rivers and traditional swung presentations. This dressing follows a Pryce-Tannatt 1914-style version, with a yellow-and-green body, silver rib, black hackle, married wing, topping, jungle cock sides, and blue macaw horns; Bates 1990 treats it as one of the standard reference patterns in the classic salmon fly canon.

The Half Pint Midge is a bead-head chironomid pupa pattern for tailwaters, spring creeks, rivers, and stillwaters where trout feed on small midges. Its slim body, flash wing buds, wire rib, and tungsten bead make it a useful winter or cold-water nymph when fish want a compact profile with a quick sink rate.

The Hendrickson is a Catskill dry fly for the male dun of Ephemerella subvaria, one of the first important mayflies of spring in eastern trout water. Roy Steenrod tied it around 1916 on the Beaverkill and named it for A.E. Hendrickson. This dressing follows the Art Flick Catskill version: upright divided wood duck wings, medium dun tail and hackle, and a pinkish-tan dubbed body. The matching female pattern is usually dressed as the Red Quill or Light Hendrickson.

The Intruder is a versatile steelhead and salmon streamer built around a long-shank hook, bead head, and marabou tail and wing. It imitates baitfish and leeches and is effective on both Pacific Northwest rivers and Atlantic salmon lochs. The pattern flies through the water with a pulsing, lifelike action and produces in a wide range of conditions, from clear low water to stained spring runoff.

Tied in 1850 by Jock Scott — gillie to Lord John Scott on the River Tweed — this is among the most celebrated of the fully-dressed Atlantic salmon flies. The body is built in two halves separated by an ostrich-herl butt, finished with the recognizable mixed married wing of dyed swan or goose, peacock wing, bustard substitute, golden pheasant tail, and white-tipped turkey, topped with golden pheasant crest and set off with jungle cock eyes. Originally fished for Atlantic salmon on the Tweed and Spey, it is today tied as much for the bench as the water — but a sparser dressing on a heavy iron will still swing a pool. Pinch or remove the barb on any hook intended for fishing.