Help a brother out!

[Aquaman]

Hello all, I'm a newbie to this site... as you can see this is my very first post. Great group of people here from what I can tell so far. I'm relatively new to fly fishing the sweetwater as I've spent most of my time fishing the salt; but for that last few seasons I find myself gravitating to the rivers and streams more and more in search of trout. I was hoping that some of you could offer some advice in putting together a basic fly box of must haves for New England rivers and streams. I still have not caught a trout on a dry fly yet either...hoppers and ant patterns aside. If you were to put together a few flies in a box as the absolute must-haves, what would they be and in what sizes? Any insight would help as I'm still trying to figure out how to be more consistant in cacthing trout. Especially with the dry flies and nymphs.

Thanks in advance...

[Steamtrain]

try this thread

http://www.flyfishinginnh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1246&start=0

[Flyfish99]

You'll get a lot of answers to your question. They will vary with the experiences and personal preferences of the posters, but I think all will be helpful to you. Following is a very basic, bare bones collection for New England trout.

Wet flies:
Leadwing Coachman, Hare's Ear & Partridge sizes 12 -16

Streamers/Bucktails:
Grey Ghost Marabou, Black Ghost Marabou, Zoo Cougar, Magog Smelt, Black Nose Dace

Nymphs:
Prince - sizes 10 - 14, Pheasant Tail 12 - 18, Hare's Ear Flashback 10 - 16, Deep Sparkle Pupa (tan & olive) 12 - 16 Emergent Sparkle Pupa (same colors & sizes) San Juan Worm - red, pink, tan, & brown

Dries:
Adams 10 - 20, Hendrickson - 12, Red Quill 12 & 14, Lt Cahill 12 - 16,
Sulphur Dun 14 - 20, Blue Wing Olive 16 - 24, Brown Bivisible 12 - 16,
Elk Hair Caddis (tan & olive) 12 - 18, Elk Hair Caddis (black) 16 - 20
Griffith's Gnat - 18 - 24

Multi purpose:
Wooly Buggers - sizes 6 - 12 Olive and black with grizzly hackle. These can be fished dead drift as a nymph, or like a streamer.

Hornberg Special - a staple of the North Country. Carry a variety of sizes and both standard and yellow variations. Can be fished dry, wet, as a streamer, or about any way you can think of.

Tight lines!

[StrBender]

Welcome,

If you go to the home page, look on the left side of the page and click on fly tying. It will give you a great list to start with. You may also want this great book, Hatch Guide for New England Streams by Thomas Ames Jr. I will tell you what these guy's told me when I was starting out here. Start with a few basic nymphs, wets & dries and grow from there as you learn.

[Aquaman]

Wow! great thread Steamtrain! There's plenty of suggestions to start off and build from there...and thanks for the replies Flyfish99 and StrBender! I can't wait to get back out there and fish! It's been so long it hurts!

[gel56]

I like Thomas Ames too, especially considering his text also gives time frames for using the flies representing the insects he covers. The boxes I carry are based alot on his book.

If you'd like to look at another (shorter) list, Dave Hughes in "Essential Trout Flies" has a short list in the back of the book which, he claims, will catch flies anywhere ... and alot of them are familiar to Ames fans.

Both authors tell you where and how to fish the flies in their books, Ames much more so than Hughes.

Have fun.