The Standards For Trout

[FishinCricket]

I see where you are going (pellet feed dummies), but they clearly take rising insects. Why wouldn't the same apply for nymphs?

Not where I was going at all... Think on it for a minute.. If they put the best flies on the "hotlist", it wouldn't be long until those flies quit producing... "Hotlists" are like the flashy new lure, they're more about catching fisherman then fish..

[Wayne SW/MO]

I guess I am the lone wolf. Where else is there to fish?

Two or three times a week? My point was that if you fish a few times a year you tend to follow the list which are self supporting. Take the Brassie, aka SJW, that was the rage at one time, so many used it that its success was guaranteed by mass use. It's popularity was passed along by the shop from reports by fishermen who only fished with what they were told.

[FishinCricket]

Two or three times a week? My point was that if you fish a few times a year you tend to follow the list which are self supporting. Take the Brassie, aka SJW, that was the rage at one time, so many used it that its success was guaranteed by mass use. It's popularity was passed along by the shop from reports by fishermen who only fished with what they were told.

It's a vicious cycle!!! :pulls_hair_out:

[Wayne SW/MO]

Mic you would have to burn the woods and sift the ashes to find very many anglers in the parks who fish HE's, PT's, Prince, leeches, EHC, etc,etc. That is no indication of their effectiveness however.

[laker67]

The hot list might be based on the flies that did not sell the previous week.

[flyrodman]

Freshly stocked trout do not know as much as what to eat and what not to eat. Trout that have been in the stream for a while, in my observation, take natural patterns like GRHE's and PTN's MORE OFTEN than freshly stocked trout. Not saying that all older fish exclusively eat natural patterns, but they are smarter. Especially after they have been caught. Just my 2 cents

[laker67]

Two or three times a week? My point was that if you fish a few times a year you tend to follow the list which are self supporting. Take the Brassie, aka SJW, that was the rage at one time, so many used it that its success was guaranteed by mass use. It's popularity was passed along by the shop from reports by fishermen who only fished with what they were told.

No, probably, over the course of the year, once a week either at taney or the parks.

[timsfly]

Pheasant tails, hares ears, sow bugs, scuds, brassies, flies like that are on my list

at the shop nearly all year, in sizes #12-#18's unless the water is big brown and rolling

then it is big streamers and bright colored nymphs and GLO-BALLS

[Outside Bend]

From what I understand, Taney's food base is predominately midges and sowbugs. I'm sure you'd catch fish down there with pheasant tails, hare's ears, and other mayfly imitations, but probably not as many as you would imitating the most abundant trout foods.

As for the rest of it, I think it has a lot more to do with the anglers than the fish. Folks tend to fish with what they're most confident in, and that varies among anglers. Some folks catch the snot out of fish using only hare's ears, PT nymphs, and other "traditional" nymph patterns. Other folks are big into midges, flashy attractor nymphs like the copper john, czech-style nymphs, san juan worms, whatever. It just depends on what the individual angler has the most faith in.

The "hot patterns," you see at the local shop are just a guide, an angler's perspective of what's going on in a given fishery. It doesn't mean other patterns or tactics won't work, it's just a jumping-off point.

[ozark trout fisher]

To the extent that I fish the parks at all, I've often done pretty well on Pheasant Tails and Hare's Ears...That they aren't known as the "hot" flies doesn't mean a thing. The trout don't know and presumably don't care which type of fly is popular this week. Some of the best fly fisherman I've ever known hardly use anything else besides Adams and Hare's Ears.