Today I want to discuss my six favorite trout dry flies for early season trout fishing.
Fishing with dry flies which match the natural flies the trout feed upon is very productive and fun.
When I first started identifying the aquatic insect hatches in our trout streams, Art Flick was a great help. I’d bottle them up, guess at their identification, and send them up to Art in NY. I enjoyed this project greatly and still continue studying the hatches.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #1
The Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry is a very important fly to me because it floats exceptionally well. It is very easy to see on the stream. It matches two of the first three major mayfly hatches. The high floating quality makes it an ideal fly for a dry-dropper combination. I like to fish a Mr. Rapidan Bead Head Nymph on a two foot dropper below it.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #2
The Spirit of Pittsford Mills ranks high on my list of favorite flies because it matches mayflies, caddisflies, and stoneflies. This makes it an excellent dry fly to use if the hatches are sparse. Basically, there is no wrong time to fish the Spirit of Pittsford Mills.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #3
Murray’s Brown Drake Fly is productive during the march brown mayfly hatch. This is a large natural fly that is very heavy on many streams. This prompts the large trout to feed on the surface. Some of the finest dry fishing I’ve had in the Catskills has been during this hatch.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #4
A Mr. Rapidan Delta Wing Caddis in olive will catch many of the trout which feed on the natural caddisflies. Over the past several years I’ve seen more caddis larva in our streams than ever before. Fish these along the edges of the back eddies the last several hours of the day and you will catch many trout. This is a good high floating dry fly making it an excellent choice to fish as a dry dropper combination. I use a Murray’s Olive Caddis Pupa on a two foot 5X dropper below it. A gentle fly twitching action is exceptionally productive with this dry fly pupa dropper combination.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #5
The Murray’s Little Yellow Stonefly is a must. This is one of the heaviest, long lasting hatches on many streams. Often you will see a trout race several feet to capture a natural little yellow stonefly dancing across the surface. Experiment with an upstream dead drift presentation as well as a gentle twitching fly drift. Sometimes the trout will take one type drift rather than the other.
Favorite Trout Dry Fly #6
Murray’s Sulphur Dry is very effective when the duns are hatching as well as during the spinner-fall. The time of the day of the emergence of the duns often varies greatly from one stream to the next. Normally the hatch begins two hours before dark and last until dark with the spinner fall the last hour. However, on one of my favorite streams this is all compressed into the last hour of daylight. To play it safe, I simply plan to be on the stream the last two hours of the day.
I do find that as the hatch lasts later into the season I catch more trout by using the size 18 fly. I always fish both the size 16 and 18 on 6X. Since the streams often get lower by the time this hatch is on I find that a slack line cast helps me catch more large trout.