Pattern Database

The most popular dry fly in America. A universal mayfly imitation that works when you're not sure what the fish are eating.

Fran Betters' Adirondack attractor is one of the great regional dry flies. The rusty/orange body and stark white wings are visible in any water, and the wide-hackle float makes it bulletproof in the pocket water of the Ausable River.

Herb Welch's 1927 Maine featherwing — black floss and silver under a white wing, with yellow at throat and tail. Built for landlocked salmon and squaretail brook trout chasing smelt, and still one of the most elegant streamers ever tied. Swing it on a long line through cold water.

One of the oldest recorded dry fly patterns, the Blue Dun is a classic Catskill-style imitation for the small blue mayflies — Blue-Winged Olives, Mahogany Duns, and similar species. The dun hackle tips and gray body are timeless.

Edward Hewitt's all-hackle floater: brown hackle palmered nose-to-tail, finished with white turns at the front — visible to the fish (bi-) and to you (-visible). No body, no wing, nothing to sink. Skate it, drift it, drown it and fish it wet; the Bivisible has been un-killable since the 1920s.

Bob Clouser's dumbbell-eyed minnow pattern may be the most versatile streamer ever invented. The inverted hook rides point-up, reducing snags. Chartreuse/white is the go-to for most freshwater conditions; olive/white on overcast days; pink/white for stained water.

The Green Drake's spinner — named by Walt Dette and Ted Townsend in 1930 for the black-and-white of funeral clothes. When the big drakes return at dusk as ghost-white spinners with smoky wings, the largest fish in the pool lose their caution for half an hour. This is the fly for that half hour.

The third of Flick's Variants — all cream, for the big pale evening mayflies of high summer. A stripped cream quill body under an oversized cream hackle, no wing: at last light, when the golden drakes come off and everything on the water is a silhouette, its high stance and pale glow are exactly enough.

John Crowe's deer hair beetle is the original no-foam beetle, and it could hardly be simpler: one bunch of black deer hair tied in at the bend, pulled over the top as a shell, and clipped. A few fibers pulled out to each side make the legs, and the clipped butts form the head. Durable, buggy, and still deadly whenever beetles are near the water.

The darker companion to the Light Hendrickson: dark muskrat-gray body, wood duck wings, dun tail and hackle. Many Catskill anglers fish it for the darker male duns of Ephemerella subvaria while the Light Hendrickson covers the pinkish females — carry both through the late-April hatch.

Dave Whitlock's yarn-and-deer-hair hopper has been the standard against which hopper patterns are measured since the 1970s. A red deer-hair tail with a loop of yellow yarn over it, a clipped brown palmer over the yellow body, mottled turkey wing, knotted pheasant-tail kicker legs, and a spun deer-hair head with a trailing collar. No foam anywhere — it earns its float the traditional way.

Art Flick's Isonychia pattern, and the third of his great Variants: a stripped dark quill body under an oversized dark dun hackle, no wing. Slate drakes emerge by crawling out, so the dun on the water is an accident — but when they're around, this high-riding silhouette drifted down the fast slots brings slashing rises.

Al Troth's classic elk hair caddis is one of the most effective adult caddis patterns ever tied. The palmered hackle and buoyant elk hair wing keep it riding high in fast water.

The classic Hare's Ear nymph with a pearl flashback wing case that catches light and triggers strikes. The subtle flash suggests the gas bubble of an emerging nymph — a small change that consistently out-fishes the standard version.

Art Flick's Grey Fox Variant: an oversized, mixed-hackle Catskill Variant on a stripped light-ginger quill body, with no wing — the long, variegated hackle IS the silhouette. Flick tied it for the Green Drake hatch, but it has earned its keep as a high-riding searching fly during March Brown and Gray Fox season too.

Carrie Stevens's 1924 masterpiece, tied to imitate the smelt of Maine's Rangeley lakes and still the most famous streamer in America. An orange floss body under gray saddles, golden pheasant crests, white bucktail, and a silver pheasant shoulder — a fly worth tying slowly and fishing with conviction.

Canon Greenwell's 1854 olive imitation, still the standard answer to medium olives everywhere they hatch. Waxed yellow silk that turns dirty olive, a gold-ribbed body, furnace hackle, and a slate wing — a fly so successful its hackle color now carries its name.

Art Flick's full-dress Catskill dry for the Grey Fox hatch — cream fox-belly fur, barred mallard flank wings, and mixed ginger-grizzly hackle. It bridges the March Browns and the Light Cahills on Eastern freestone water, and with the Variants beside it completes Flick's short, perfect list.

Lee Wulff's hair-wing answer to fragile Catskill duns — a gray-bodied, brown-winged dry that floats through water that would drown a quill-and-hackle fly. On UK and Irish waters it earned a second life as the standard Mayfly (Ephemera danica) dun. Rough water, big duns, bad light: this is the fly.

The gold-ribbed hare's ear is the all-purpose nymph of Eastern trout fishing. Its rough, buggy dubbing imitates caddis pupae, mayfly nymphs, and small crustaceans with equal conviction.

Fran Betters's 1949 rough-water dun — the fly the Comparadun was refined from. A coarse deer-hair wing fanned upright over a buggy cream body, no hackle at all: it rides the Ausable's heavy pocket water flush and visible where delicate flies drown, and big-river browns have approved for seventy years.

Hiram Brobst's classic Pennsylvania caddis dry has a distinctive doubled wing — sparse wood duck flank under, deer hair over — and a palmered body. It imitates the Grannom and Spotted Sedge perfectly during spring caddis hatches.

The H&L Variant — famous as President Eisenhower's favorite fly — is a high-floating Western attractor built to stay visible. White calf-tail wings and tail flank a split peacock body: stripped quill on the rear half, full peacock herl at the thorax, finished with brown hackle. In fading light or broken water, the white wings are the last thing you lose sight of.

Randall Kaufmann's big black stonefly nymph — the standard salmonfly imitation for forty years. Heavily weighted, biot-tailed, with three notched turkey wing cases over a picked-out black body, it crawls the bottom of heavy Western water where the giant stones live for years before they ever see the bank.

Wayne "Buz" Buszek's King's River Caddis, born on California's Kings River in the 1950s, is the archetype of the turkey-wing caddis dry. A shaggy tan fur body, a single mottled turkey quill wing tied tent-style over the top, and an undersized brown collar hackle that lets the fly sit low with the wing parallel to the water.

One of the oldest and most effective wet flies in the American tradition. The peacock herl body, coachman brown hackle, and paired mallard wing suggest caddis and mayfly emergers being swept along in the current.

Ed Shenk's all-black companion to his Letort Hopper, built for the same demanding limestone flats. Black fur body, black quill wing tied flat, black deer-hair head with trailing collar — no hackle, no flash. On late-summer spring creeks a cricket often out-fishes the hopper it shadows.

Ed Shenk's Letort Hopper was built for the flat, glassy limestone water of Pennsylvania's Letort Spring Run, where a bushy hopper draws refusals. It has no hackle at all: a yellow fur body, a flat mottled turkey wing, and a spun deer-hair head whose tips sweep back as a collar. The low, flush profile is the whole point.

The Light Cahill is a classic Catskill dry fly imitating the cream and yellow mayflies that blanket streams in late spring and early summer. Its wood duck wing and ginger hackle are unmistakable.

The Light Cahill Spinner represents the final stage in the life cycle of Light Cahill mayflies in genus Maccaffertium (formerly Stenonema), when spent insects return to the water to lay eggs. These spinner falls often occur in the evening and can produce some of the most selective trout feeding of the season. Traditional quill-bodied spinner patterns emphasize slender translucence, outstretched wings, and a low-riding profile — all critical elements when trout are sipping spent mayflies from smooth water. The Light Cahill Quill Spinner excels during late spring and early summer hatches on both freestone rivers and tailwaters. Its understated appearance and classic construction make it a staple pattern whenever trout are feeding confidently in low-light conditions. The traditional material selection creates a slender, translucent body with a soft, spent-wing profile — ideal for spinner falls and selective trout.

The classic Catskill March Brown — divided wood duck wings, mixed hackle, and hare's ear body. Theodore Gordon himself fished a version of this during the first great hatch of Eastern spring. A foundational American fly pattern.

The North Country dressing for the March Brown: hare's fur on orange silk, ribbed gold, with a speckled brown partridge hackle. Swung through the riffles on a spring afternoon it takes fish during the hatch and between hatches alike — spiders don't need permission.

The New Zealand style that solved the fouling problem: the feather wing is lashed down along the whole body by the rib, so it can't wrap the hook bend, and the freed fibers stand up like a sculpin's dorsal. Olive is the classic; black and brown earn their place.

A classic attractor streamer with a bright red-yellow-yellow bucktail wing that has been enticing trout, bass, and landlocked salmon for over 80 years. Simple to tie and surprisingly effective.

Harry Murray's Shenandoah Valley classic. An essential attractor dry fly for Appalachian mountain streams, built to ride fast freestone water all day long.

Don Gapen's Muddler Minnow is the prototype of the sculpin-imitating streamer. The spun deer hair head creates a large profile and a subtle wobble, making it one of the most versatile streamers ever tied.

Dave Whitlock's impressionistic crayfish — 'near enough' to fool everything that eats them, which on smallmouth rivers is everything with fins. Painted dumbbell eyes flip it claws-up to crawl the bottom, soft hen-feather pincers wave in the current, and a palmered rusty body does the rest.

The Adams was created in 1922 by Leonard Halladay of Mayfield, Michigan, tied for his friend Charles F. Adams. It was built as a general mayfly impression rather than a match for one specific hatch, and that versatility is why it has never left anyone's box. The parachute version came later, winding the hackle flat around an upright post instead of around the shank. It sits the fly lower and shows a crisper wing profile from below — a small change that makes a real difference on selective fish.

A North Country spider fished on Yorkshire's rivers for the better part of two centuries, and brought to American attention by Sylvester Nemes's soft-hackle revival. Nothing but a slim orange silk body and a turn of speckled partridge — the sparse collar pulses in the current suggesting legs, gills, or a drowned emerger.

The third of the great North Country spiders. Yellow silk and gray speckled partridge cover the pale mayflies — sulphurs, cahills, pale wateries — anywhere they hatch. Fish it upstream dead-drift like a nymph, then let it swing up at the hang.

George Anderson's cased caddis — a rough hare's-ear case with the pale larva 'peeking' out the front, its black ostrich-herl head nodding in the current. Cased caddis are bottom ballast in every freestone river year-round, and almost nothing else imitates them.

The Pheasant Tail was developed by English riverkeeper Frank Sawyer in the mid-20th century for the chalk streams of the River Avon. Sawyer's original used only pheasant tail fibers and fine copper wire — no thread at all — to imitate the baetis nymphs his trout were feeding on. The American version, often credited to Al Troth, added a peacock herl thorax and a defined wing case and legs. That's the dressing most tiers know today, and it's the one we're tying here.

Montana's do-everything wet: peacock body under a palmered brown hackle, a gray squirrel-tail wing, and a peacock herl head. Swing it as a caddis, strip it as a streamer, dead-drift it as a stonefly — the Picket Pin has never much cared which.

Doug Prince's classic nymph is one of the best searching patterns in freshwater fishing. The white biot wings, peacock body, and brown hackle suggest a stonefly nymph but work when nothing specific is hatching.

Theodore Gordon's legendary pattern for Epeorus pleuralis — the first quality dry-fly hatch of the year on Appalachian streams. The stripped peacock quill body perfectly captures the segmented look of the natural.

Dave Whitlock's favorite fly — he said if he had one nymph, this would be it. The orange-tan belly fur of a red fox squirrel for the abdomen, the darker back fur for the thorax, ribbed with gold: a warm, buggy, all-purpose nymph that looks a little like everything trout eat.

The Red Quill imitates the male Hendrickson natural — darker and smaller than the female, with a distinctive reddish-brown segmented body made from a stripped hackle quill. A Catskill classic as important as the Hendrickson itself.

Taylor Williams' Renegade is unlike any other fly — a brown hackle collar at the rear, peacock herl body, and white hackle collar at the front. It imitates nothing specific and attracts everything. One of the great Western searching patterns.

The Royal Coachman colors in a down-wing trude silhouette — peacock and red floss under a swept white calf wing. Reads as caddis, small stone, or nothing in particular; visible at forty feet in chop; and quietly one of the best attractor dries the West ever standardized.

Lee Wulff's iconic attractor dry fly. The peacock-red-peacock body makes it visible in rough water, and white calf tail wings make it easy to see from a distance. One of the most recognizable flies ever created.

The Madison River's twisted-yarn midge, popularized by Blue Ribbon Flies. A cord of twisted Z-Lon makes the segmented abdomen; a clipped tuft of deer hair makes the emerging wing bud. Red, olive, and brown, sizes 16–20, cover most of what a Western river calls midges and small caddis.

Waterhen Bloa's dark companion: purple silk and a snipe hackle, nothing more. The North Country's Iron Blue pattern — when the little dark olives with the slate wings are on the water in cold, blustery weather, this spider swung across the current is deadly.

A cross between the Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear nymph and the soft hackle wet fly, this pattern excels swung on the downstream pass. The partridge collar pulses in the current, imitating a struggling emerger.

Gary LaFontaine's Emergent Sparkle Pupa, the centerpiece of his landmark caddis research. The Antron bubble overbody — chosen because Antron's tri-lobal fibers trap air and sparkle exactly like a gas-filled pupal sheath — plus a trailing Antron shuck and a small deer-hair wing capture the caddis at its most vulnerable moment.

Peacock herl and a tiny iridescent starling hackle — the small dark soft-hackle for smutting fish. When trout are on little black stuff and refusing everything, a size 18 Starling & Herl swung or dead-drifted in the film is the old, quiet answer.

Fran Betters's Ausable River fly, named for his answer when asked what they were biting on. Nothing but snowshoe hare's foot — tail, wing, and the rusty-cream underfur dubbed for the body — on hot orange thread. It floats like a cork through pocket water, refuses to sink, and imitates whatever the fish decide it is.

R.S. Austin's Devon pattern (1890s), named for the famously secret pinkish dubbing from a tup — a ram. Yellow silk at the rear, a blush of pink mixture at the thorax, and blue dun hackle: the enduring pattern for pale wateries and other small light mayflies on smooth water.

The most famous of the North Country spiders, fished on Yorkshire rivers for two centuries and still the best Large Dark Olive pattern going. Yellow silk barely shaded with blue-gray fur, and a turn of soft waterhen hackle that breathes in the current like a drowning dun's wings.

Lee Wulff's all-white hair-wing, and the classic answer to the White Fly (Ephoron) — the August dusk hatch that turns Appalachian and mid-Atlantic rivers white with duns. When the light is nearly gone and everything on the water is pale, the White Wulff is both imitation and beacon.

One of the oldest American wet fly patterns, the Woolly Worm predates the Woolly Bugger by decades. The palmered hackle over a chenille body suggests a caterpillar, stonefly nymph, or leech depending on how it's fished.

A sparse, delicate dry fly imitating the little yellow stonefly (Isoperla spp.). One of the most reliable summer dry-fly hatches on Appalachian freestone streams.

Dan Byford's rabbit-strip baitfish — the fly that made the zonker strip a category. A pearl mylar body flashes like a minnow's flank while the fur strip swims over the top with an action no feather can match. Natural for sculpin-brown, white or olive for baitfish; it all works.