[Matt Henderson]

All,

Its saturday night so I've been tying flies and making dinner whilst Mrs mdh calls her mum and watches stricty come dancing. 

So tonight I've been thinking that for my Dad's christmas I would give him a fly box with some flies in it.  He's recently back from working abroad and hasn't been fishing regularly for years.  So I was thinking a double sided box one side for salmon and sea-trout and the other for trout. 

The salmon side
1. Sunray shadows on alu tubes
2. Monkeys on brass bottle tubes
3. Cascades
4. Allys shrimps
5. Stoats tails
6. Silver stoats
7. Emerald stoats.
8. Gold bodied willie gunns on brass bottle tubes

The trout side
1. Bead head damsels
2. Klinks
3. Alexandras
4. Bead head pheasant tail nymphs
5. A selection of spiders
6. A few wooly buggers
7. hares ear nymph
8. some crunchers

Any ideas for other patterns that would be good or changes to the selection?  For the pedants amongst you yes I'm aware that the sunrays, Willie gunns and monkeys won't go in the fly box..

Thanks

Matt

[Barry Robertson]

Maybe if you had mentioned a reservoir or stillwater selection i might of had a few ideas

[Matt Henderson]

Maybe if you had mentioned a reservoir or stillwater selection i might of had a few ideas

suggest away Baz they won't go to waste.

[Barry Robertson]

I think an ultimate fly box is never ending and you will never achieve that goal, there is always something new comes up that turns out to be a must have pattern!
I dare say the method / technique is more important!
As for flies, in no particular order the flies i wouldnt leave the house without would be as follows:

Blobs
Boobies
Cormorants
Buzzers
Crunchers
Diawl Bachs
Dries

All these flies in a zillion differant forms and sizes 
 

[Irvine Ross]

Matt

On the trout side I would add a few buzzers, corixa, a dry sedge fly such as an elk hair caddis, some parachute duns in various colours and some spent spinners. That would cover it for me.

Irvine

[Stuart Smith]

i would go for

Bibios
Kates
pennels
deer hair sedges
peach baby dolls
muddlers
spiders


stuart

[Peter McCallum]

i would go for

Bibios
Kates
pennels
deer hair sedges
peach baby dolls
muddlers
spiders


stuart

SPIDERS??? How many hundred digfferent tyings of them do you have in your box Stu?????

Haven't fished with a peach doll for yaers, though at one time they were my go to fly for very sunny days - tied on a size 12 or14.

I'll go with those choices minus kates and shove in a black humungus type lure as well as a march brown emerger for rivers. Also a selection of clyde style flies, the teal & black in particular.

Peter