Flies to Use on the Fishing Day

I've been getting quite a few questions regarding fly patterns to use on the Annual Meeting Fishing Day, and I have some suggestions.  First, I firmly believe in getting my flies and fly suggestions from the local fly shops and guides where I am going fishing.  So, one suggestion I have is to visit the webistes of our Bozeman area TU Business member fly shops and read their fishing reports.  Our TU  Business members include many/most of the leadng fly shops in the Bozeman area, and they all post good fishing reports on their websites.  We are encouraging our TU Annual Meeting attendees to support our TU B members.  Here's a link http://www.tu.org/tu-business/MT

Here's a quick, "Clff Notes" summary of flies.  Streamers are great fall fly patterns, and there are a bunch of them that work.  i like conehead JJ's and Buggers and Flashabuggers, leech patterns and Zonkers and their various permutations in earth tone colors in sizes 2 and 4.  There are lots and lots and lots of other streamer patterns that would work, too, including old school stuff like Spruce Flies and Platte River Specials, and of course, the new generation of articulated streamers in the REALLY big sizes.  Nymphs work all year round, and you can pretty much use the same nymphs in all seasons.  Hard to beat beadhead Prince Nymphs, Lightning Bugs, Copper Johns, Hare's Ear, and Pheasant Tails in 12-14.  We have lots of stoneflies in our freestone rivers like the Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin, and again, there are 100's of stonefly pattersn to chose from.  One stonefly nymph pattern that is quite popular is the Pat's Rubberlegs in size 6-8 in brown, black, tan, and the "pepperoni" combination colors. For dry flies, the fall hatch is Blue Wing Olive mayflies in size 16-18.  There are many BWO patterns I like, but honestly, I never stray far from a Parachute Adams or a BWO Sparkle Dun. 

These are general suggestions, and I hope they'll help folks out. Again, I would suggest contacting the Bozeman area fly shops, get their suggestions, read their website fishing reports, and get your flies from them.

Dave Kumlien, Annual Meeting Fishing Day Coordinator

DKumlien@tu.org