Trout Fly of the Year Awards

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I've been thinking a lot about the past season, now gone and much missed. It was a good season, and a few special flies helped make it so. It's time to honor those flies with the Trout Fly of the Year awards.

TROUT FLY OF THE YEAR

The best fly of the year, far and away, was what I came to call the Big Bomber. At a time when hoppers should have been bringing slashing strikes, the fish assiduously ignored my hopper flies. I tied this on one day on a whim and on the first cast a very nice Brown slammed it. For the next two months this fly--sitting still or stripped, dry or wet--consistently worked the fish--big and small, Browns and Rainbows--into a tizzy.

RECIPE

Hook: #6 2X streamer hook

Thread: Black

Tail: Light deer hair, thick

Body: Black dubbing, thick

Rib: Wide gold tinsel

Wing and head: Natural deer hair, head clipped

FLY OF THE YEAR--FIRST RUNNER UP

In a similar fashion this fly, the Carpet Caddis, saved the Spring. I couldn't buy a surface take until I finally tied this on. Fish came from yards around to grab it before it could get away. The season came alive with this fly.

RECIPE

Hook: #12 curved shank 2X streamer hook

Thread: Black

Tail: Olive Antron yarn

Body: Olive dubbing

Rib: Thread

Underwing: Black Krystal Flash

Overwing: Olive Antron yarn

Hackle: Brown saddle, oversized

SECOND RUNNER UP

This little Stimulator came in handy at odd moments when the action slowed down on other flies. I tied this fly on in late October when the big fish were up but not touching any of my tiny flies, and it took the honor of bringing in the best fish of the season--maybe of all my seasons at the lake--the now-famous slab of a Brown. Nice fish. Nice fly.

  

RECIPE

Hook: #12 curved shank 2X streamer hook

Tail: Black deer hair

Body: Orange dubbing

Rib: thread

Wing: Black deer hair

Hackle: Brown saddle

HONORABLE MENTION

These flies were consistent fish getters under certain conditions. When trolling, I almost always went with a Micro Leech, red or black. And I had some fine days early in the season when I drifted the orange Caddis Nymph under an indicator.

SPECIAL CATEGORIES

BEST LAHONTAN CUTTHROAT FLY

I tried for a long time to hook one of the over sized Lahontan Cutthroats at a nearby lake. It was this big soft hackle that finally did the trick.

BEST MOUNTAIN TROUT FLY

I had a wonderful time catching beautiful little trout in a tumbling mountain stream. I cut and prepared a rod from a wild cherry sapling, put on about six feet of 5X line, and tied on this little caddis nymph. They loved it. I loved it.

BEST FLY TIED UP JUST FOR HALLOWEEN

The last day of the lake season was Halloween, so I tied up a fly in honor of the occasion. It's a big Stimulator, primarily black (black being the key ingredient in any fly at this lake; as Henry Ford said about the model T, "You can have any color you want as long as it's black.") with an orange rib and orange wing. What do you know, it worked.

PRETTIEST FLY

I don't know, I just think this is a pretty fly. I haven't seen it in a long time, I don't remember if I caught anything on it, and I have no idea where it is right now. Maybe I lost it.