Your one go to fly for:

[fish_4_all]

One fly that if that is all you could take for:
Trout in Lakes:
Trout in Rivers:
Summer Run Steelhead:
Coho:
Chinook:
Winter Run Steelhead:

I really want to know which fly you would take for each species if that was the only one you could take. I have gone 5 times this season for trout and 3 times for steelhead already and haven't gotten so much as a nip from a summer run or trout in the rivers and nothing on a fly in the lakes with planted trout!

 

[MattZ]

One fly that if that is all you could take for:
Trout in Lakes: size 14 nymph
Trout in Rivers: size 14 nymph
Summer Run Steelhead: A classic
Coho:
Chinook:
Winter Run Steelhead: A classic

Best of luck.

 

[GungasUncle]

Trout in lakes: Wooly Bugger - size 10. Red, brown, olive, or black with a gold bead or cone head.

Trout in Rivers: Soft hackle wet, size 14. Red, orange, yellow, or lime green floss body, silver rib, and a couple turns of soft hackle. Dead drift, tight line swing, or stripped in like a mini streamer. Treat it with floatant and fish it on the surface film. Versatile flies that catch lots of fish.

 

[wozniasm]

Haven't done all the examples but:
Trout in Lakes: Wooley Bugger if I don't have a Careys Special but I tried a Muddler Minnow recently and they wouldn't lay OFF on it.
I know, it's more than one but are you going to tell me you would EVER go with one fly?!

 

[halibuthitman]

10 mm bead.. No lake fishing really in my program.

 

[fish_4_all]

Mattz: A classic? Can't find a pattern for that one.......... Anything more specific?

Not splitting hairs but a 10mm bead for a fly? That is something I might try even though I will get yelled at by a lot of fly fishers for doing it. I don't care, I fish to catch fish.

Any specific color bead and how well does it full cast or do you have to roll cast it? I thought about trying some yarnies with some lead wire tied on each side to get it down a little.

I am kinda looking for specific go to flies by name, color, etc... I have a fly I use in casting/drifting gear that is killer but can't get a fish to take it on a fly rod. Just not fished the same but may be bale to get it to work now that I should be able to get the fly down with the sink tip line. Add a little weight to the fly itself and it may work as effectively as it does doing a lift and drop on a drift.

My uncle swears by green butt skunk for steelhead; solid black body, hackle tail father, hackle collar with a bright green 1/4 inch butt section. He liked another for trout and occassionaly caught steelhead on them, was a simple black bead body with a bushy chenille collar. Tied both for him but I can't get a fish to take them.

 

[MattZ]

Sorry about that, I was rather vague for a reason.

Firstly, fly fishing is the wrong thing to do if you fish to catch fish. its not as effective. That being said, I fish to have fun, catching fish is a side effect.

I don't think flies matter much at all so long as they have the design principals you want. I could catch 10 fish on a fly, hand that fly to you, but if you don't fish it well, at the right depth or speed, you wont catch 10 fish.

I fish a size 14 nymph because that is what most trout eat the most and they are easy to tie. I tie this nymph in "dark" and "light" and in heavy and light.

As far as steelhead... I fish spey and dee flies for them because I think princely fish should be angled with flies worthy of the target. Its a mutual respect thing. So I fish flies like Rough Grouse, Dunt Dee, Skagit Mist, Balmoral dee, Akroyds, Orange Heron, and a few other fancy steelhead flies. again, how much water are you fishing? depth, speed color? all matters in fly selection, because a fly needs to be in a certain place.

I live a philosophical life and fish the same way. I do it on my own terms. You will get there eventually.

have fun along thee way.

 

[perfectg03]

Mattz - You are 100% not correct. It isn't as effective if you don't know what you are doing, you are correct there. But I know for sure, after fly fishing for over 30 years that I catch 75% more fish in lakes fly fishing than anyone I see on the banks plunking bait. Also in rivers, fly fishing is far more effective than casting hardware or drifting bait for trout.

For steelhead I think it is a different story, but this year I landed 23 winter steel on the swing, while my friends tossing gear only landed 9 so I guess maybe not. Once you learn how to present your fly correctly (which includes depth, speed, line control, etc..) you will catch more fish than the gear chuckers.

 

[MattZ]

Hey Perfect g03,

I agree that a good fly fisherman will catch more fish than an average gear guy, but given a gear fisherman that has spent as much time perfecting his craft as you and I have for fly fishing, and he will out fish us most days. Sure we have him beat during a hatch, but any other time, a gear guy can do better, and lets not forget a gear guy can fish a fly too! we are frankly more limited by our gear selection, whereas a gear angler can quite literally cover any piece of water he or she desires. You and I must look for specific areas where our technique will be most effective. I too will outfish gear guys for trout 9 times out of 10, but had I spent the last 20 years working on gear technique, I'd certainly outfish you and me most of the time. I think fly fishing tends to bring out the passion in people though, so fly fisherman tend to perfect reading water, understanding hatches, and all the rest faster than gear guys.

Nice work swinging for steel this year! This was my first year trying, and It was hard. I finished winter with 3, haha. but again, we are limited by how much water we can fish. A gear guy can fish more water more effectively. and again, I am talking good gear men and women, not the weekend warrior.

I guess the point of my post was to really say the same thing as you. There isn't a magic fly, there is only getting better at fly fishing. This includes knowing what fly to use when, how deep to fish it, how to mimic the action of naturals, etc etc. Some days I will clean up on a skinny olive damsel pattern, and some days this pattern gets ignored, but a small black nymph will do the job.

 

[perfectg03]

I didn't catch a steelhead my first year swinging, so for you to hook and land 3 this year is great!

Here is my list of flies:

Trout in Lakes: Carey special or olive damsel
Trout in Rivers: possie bugger or purple haze (good searching fly everywhere...even for coastal cutties)
Summer Run Steelhead: green butt skunk
Coho:Never tried it
Chinook:Clouser (Black and chartruese, black and red)
Winter Run Steelhead:This big nasty red and black thing I tied up. Can't beat good egg patterns on small streams.

 

[HootYeah]

Trout in Lakes: Wooly bugger, green with a gold bead head
Trout in Rivers:Mega prince with a soft hackle dropper tailing about 1-1.5 feet behind the mega prince.
Summer Run Steelheadopsicle pattern mole leech or a purple and pink mole leech.
Coho:
Chinook:
Winter Run Steelhead:egg pattern with a smaller egg dropper fished 1-1.5 feet behind the larger egg pattern.

When fishing rivers if you arent catching the bottom frequently you arent fishing low enough, invest in some sinkin line.

 

[fish_4_all]

That's more like it. There is a specific reason I asked. I fish a streamer fly on casting gear and I catch salmon on a regular basis and outfish anyone and everyone 90% of the time. It wasn't easy to get to that point because it has it's disadvantages but over time I fine tuned it and now outfish the ones who taught me most of them time.

So I guess I proved both of your points: It is a fly that I fish but I am a drift fishing. I know how to fish it, I know where to fish, I know how much weight, I know how fast to fish it in specific situations, I know where I have to cast it and I know how to tell if I have rolled over a fish or it has hit the fly. It took me 4 years to catch a fish on it but now I have 250-500 of the tied up when it comes time to fish Salmon because I use them 90% of the time and lose a LOT of them.

Fishing the fly on fly line will be HARD, have to reach the bottom of deep pools quickly and them work the fly in a lift and drop motion which is not going to be easy to replicate on fly gear. I know the fly will work and I know Coho will chase it out of deep water but most of the time the hit is on the drop.

The same fly works in a smaller version and a color variation for steelhead but it is fished dead drift with a float. A little easier to replicate with fly line so I will fish it some for summer run.

And the same fly again works for both lake and river trout in even a smaller version with a slight color tweak and add on. I fish it in lakes with a casting bobber on a steady slow retrieve but I cast the thing 3-10x farther than I will ever throw a fly line and the fish hit a long ways out. Mainly because I bank fish and have to reach where the fish are surfacing. For river fising this should work much better for cutthroat and resident steelhead because I can reach both fairly easily.

So I do have a GOTTO have it fly for all species. The biggest problem will be learning to fish it on fly line and present it the same way I do when drift gear fishing.

Asking others to post their GOTTO fly simply gives me a list of flies I will be likely tying and trying for all species. I know certain ones will work in different situations better than others. Eventually I will find that specific fly I wilw ant to have with me at what time of year to better my chances of catching fish.

Perfectg03, I hear yah on the big nasty thing. The largest summer run I ever caught float fishing was on a huge egg sucking leech pattern that looked like it would choke the fish or scare them away. You have a picture of the clouser you would bewilling to share? Sounds like a killer around here as float fishers often catch them on dark micro and small jigs in shallower water than fishing bait and where bait often fails.

The only patterns I tie that I know that work for summer run on fly rods are my green butt skunk and a pattern I came up with because my uncle caught many fish on them. I know I should be able to catch fish on them but the learning curve will be a big one as it was when I wanted to become good with a technique that I know worked very well.