Trout Flies for Alberta.

[Cal]

This is a bit of a two part question, the first part is that I remember a few years back an artical being run in a couple magazines including the fishing guide, AO, and possibly "fishing the trout highway" if I remember correctly. The artical was about ten different patterns that the author felt would catch "90% of alberta trout in 90% of alberta waters 90% of the time". At the time I didnt fly fish but now I do, over the last few seasons I've started to amass a small collection of flies and I would be interested to read that artical again if someone knows where I can find it, or at least get the names of the patterns.

The second part is if anyone had some other suggestions allong the same lines, versitile patterns that would work well on in a variety of situations.

[flyguyd]

Hares ear , Pheasant tail nymph ,Brown woolly bugger , H & L Varient , Blue winged Olive,
Pale morning dun, Prince Nymph , Sofa Pillow, Green Damsel, Kaufmanns Stone, scud

[lannie]

elk hair caddis, stimulator, adams, and just about any 1 of the bead head nymphs with floating line only you should be set.

[duffy4]

I am pretty sure Barry Mitchell's "Trout Highway" book has a good bit on his choice of flys for Alberta streams. And in the text of the book he gestimates the best time of year to be using different patterns on different water.

This is a great book as far as I'm concerned and is entertaining as well as educational.

Any beginner fly caster would benefit from its information. Any serious veteran fly guy could make good use of it as well.

[pikester]

You know it's totally a personal decision because it all depends on what fish you spend most of your time going after & what type of water you're fishing. Also some people get very good at fishing certain types of patterns & can catch fish with them all the time! I have a buddy for example that can catch fish anywhere, anytime with caddis larvae patterns but I only have luck with those same patterns once in a blue moon.

I like flyguyd's list, it's pretty much what I would tell you except I substitute a stimulator in place of the sofa pillow.

[superspud]

Stim, parachute adams, caddis, bwo, black wolly bugger, hares ear, prince, phesent tail, twenty incher, sanjuan.


but in reality i carry a crap load flys when i fish. all sorts of varying sizes and colors. it has served me well. ya never know what they will want

[bobalong]

Due to the fact that trout feed about 90% of the time sub-surface, I would concentrate more on chironomids, scuds, backswimmers and leeches, at least for still waters.
Moving water, depending where you fish and time of year, san juan, tung stud, prince nymph, stones, and streamers. I fish these patterns (with the exception of the streamers) on a hopper dropper quite a bit of the time
Fishing dry flies are lots of fun, but I find the hatches CAN be short lived. Most of the popular dry flies have already been mentioned in the other posts.

[Cal]

elk hair caddis, stimulator, adams, and just about any 1 of the bead head nymphs with floating line only you should be set.

This is pretty much the route I've been going for a couple years and its worked well for me. I want to get a few more patterns though but cant help but feel that my fly purchasing lacks direction and as a result my money is not as well spent as it could be.

My collection so far includes

Some dry flies with green bodys and gray hackles that I dont know the name of but I fished them exclusively my whole first season with good results, Adams, Prince nymph, backswimmer, black and olive woolly buggers, muddler minnow, mickey finn, elk hair caddis, some large stimulators that I tend to fish as hoppers, mosqitos, and a few other odds and ends all crammed into one box.

[AlbertaAngler]

Last years Barry Mithchell's Alberta Fishing guide had an article by Vic Bergman about 7 flies that might be the one you were looking for or very similiar to it. He said that these 7 flies should catch fish almost all the time. In case you can't find the article the flies were the stimulator, parachute adams, light cahill, royal coachman, copper Johns, san juan worm and the wooly bugger.

Your collection sounds good, as long as it works, your unkown flies are probably green drakes.

[ironbutterfly]

in my opinion:
hare's ear
pheasant tail nymph
water boatman
scud
wooly bugger (black)
wooly bugger (olive)
blue winged olive dry
blue winged olive parachute
adams dry
caddis dry
stimulator
stonefly nymph
chironomid

...that's 13 sorry.

[tonyflyfish]

I have that article in the trailer-will dig it out and let you know. I can send you the article if you like.

T