[Matt Henderson]

All,

Previously Ben and others have posted a short list of flies that they stick to for salmon fishing. Does anybody care to create a list of essential Don trout patterns. Say 10 - 15 patterns that will catch fish through the season. Appreciate that it's not an easy list but at the moment I've got a small selection of spiders and s few kinks and some streamers. I'm really looking for small wets and dries rather than more streamer patterns.

Cheers Matt

[Noel Kelly]

Hi Matt,
When there are olives about I use paraduns, comparaduns and CDC & elk in 16 and 18's.
March browns, Peter (rabbitangler) march brown emerged and cdc&elk in 16 and 14.
Sedge, cdc&elk in anything from 18 to 12 and also peter's mbe
For evening fishing once it gets to the point I won't be changing anymore it's usually a black kink size 14 mainly cause I have confidence it's floating even though I prob can't see it.
That's my usual selection but I'm sure we all have our own favourites.

Wets hmmmm I don't fish them enough really but there will always be an invicta and a green Peter on the cast somewhere.

Seeing as you don't want streamer patterns I won't tell you the pattern I use 99.99% of the time so. 

[Loxiafan]

The list by Sandy Nelson on Mike's main site is a good place to start IMO.

My "must haves" in the dry dept seem to be:

JT Olive 19/18 and 17/16
Wyatt DHE size 14 and 16 (sometimes SHE in 16 and 18 as Olive imit.)
Olive Paradun 18 and 16
CDC and Elk 12, 15 and 17
Balloon Caddis 17 and 15
BWO Spent Spinner 18 and 16
Black Gnat type thing 20, 18

If I had to narrow it down to just two for all season then JT Olive and Wyatt DHE as have caught all my fish since April.  If only one then the DHE as it seems to basically represent both Olives and Caddis at different stages of their respective  lifecycles. 

I now seem to be pretty much dry fly these days but Waterhen Bloa, Snipe and Purple and Grouse/Woodcock and Orange are all good Spiders for me. For standard 'wets' Black Pennell and Bloody Butcher in the old days for the Sea Trout, March Brown for the Brownies.

Lindsay

[Matt Henderson]

Thanks chaps. Located that chart of Sandy's exactly what I was after just need to get busy at the vice now!

[Iain Cameron]

Does anybody care to create a list of essential Don trout patterns.

hi Matt
if I had just one wet fly, it would be a pearly invicta, size 14.
Just one dry fly, it would be a CDC F-fly type pattern, size 14. (like them on the kamasan B100 emergery hook)
Nymph - hares' ear nymph with bead head and partridge hackle. size... ah, 14 probably

these guys are rarely far from my leader - none of them are representing any one thing in particular i guess, so are generally impressionistic and adaptable.

but... my fly boxes are of course full of all sorts of other stuff...