Old Fly patterns that still work!!

[deefly]

I was just wondering if anyone on the list still uses old patterns, say from the 30s on back? Perhaps your grandpappy showed you some super patterns that still do the trick, even in todays crowded, heavily fished waters.
Myself, I still use the Royal Coachman (1883) and the coachman (1845) and a host of english spey patterns from the 1870s. I have sure moved a lot of searuns on the old venerable Parmabelle. (1880s)and for most of my dry work, I use the Adams (1930s) and the gray hackle peacock. I tried a Professor, but never caught bodiddly!
Id be interested to here of some of the older patterns that are your favorites.
BTW, I ran into Les(ter) Johnson at the Eugene show and his assessment of todays anglers using older patters was "they dont..get over it!" Needless to say, I blew him off! Well, thats my 2 cents anyway. :rolleyes:

[Snapset]

Adams, Fanwing Coachman, Hares Ear,and the good old Hornberg. I don't leave home without them. And a couple hundred other flies, of course

[Phish_on]

Certainly, the Royal Coachman is a classic. A thing of beauty, and trout will bite it. Cutthroat can't resist it.

[garyk]

Anything in one of my all time favorite books -- Hidy & Liesenring's "The Art of Tying the Soft Hackle and Fishing the Flymph" will still catch fish today.

One of my favorites from that book is the Tupp's Indispensible, which will match an emerger or knocked down dun during the hatches of any light colored mayfly.

I forget the name, at the moment, but the one tied with mole fur is also a killer.

[deefly]

As an aside, I remember fishing the nehalem in the early 80s with spinners for searuns and this young fellow came down right near me with an old bamboo rod and the soppiest looking Grey Hackle Yellow with a blood red tail I had ever seen. As I looked on in amazement, this young fellow proceeded to land 5 nice searuns in a row. In water I had just fished!! Now that got my interest! The fly must have been about a size 8 and the kid said his granddad had given it to him! :rolleyes:

[PittsburghD]

Not my favorites, but I use them occaisionally: Red/White Bucktail and a British pattern called a Goldie.

-----D

[rob allen]

Next time you go trout fishing try a Renegade you might get suprised. One of my favorite sea-run cutthroat patterns was a professor.

[Snapset]

Deefly, that Grey Hackle Yellow with a red hackle barb tail is my go-to fly for any trout west of the cascades. Fast and easy to tie, and it flat out catches fish.

[deefly]

My brother (now in his 70s) tells me that my dad and a good friend used to fish the nehalem with a double fly rig: Royal Coachman and Red Ibis. He tells me it was quite common to come up with 2 nice fish on a cast! This must have been in the late 30s or early 40s. These were wet flies by the way.

[Paddlefish]

As trite as it sounds, it's hard to overstate the effectiveness of that old Royal Coachman, especially its bucktail version here in the Northwest. I took my first two fly-caught steelhead on my first and third casts one morning with that fly, slightly weighted, on a #6 hook.

Another time, I tried being "scientific." :hoboy: I pounded a small stream one May morning with imitations of everything I could find hatching, flying, or crawling. I tried all the standards for that season, plus various hunches: "Yeah, the flying ants should be hatching about this time; I'll try an ant." Nada, zip, nothing.

Finally, a Royal Coachman bucktail. Two trout in the next five minutes, of course.

A personal favorite, however, is the Dandy Green Nymph,invented by and described by Enos Bradner in his 1949 classic, "Northwest Angling." (It's pretty similar to a green-bodied Carey Special -- another Northwest classic.) I've introduced a couple of four-year-olds to trout fishing by putting the Dandy Green on light monofilament on a spinning rod, with maybe a BB shot or two, maybe not, then dragging it slowly around behind a canoe. (Yeah, I know: not exactly fly fishing, but it sure gives a beginner confidence in flies!) The strikes are hard, at or near the surface, and there's no weight to slow the trout down at all. Yahoo! I've had pre-schoolers use this method to outfish absolutely EVERYBODY on a lake: bait plunkers, Christmas tree trollers, float tube fly flickers -- all of them drawing a blank while this vociferous youngster was hooking trout after leaping trout. Some of my best-ever fishing memories, and I never got a chance to pick up a rod. I was too busy driving the net. :grin:

[deefly]

Interesting story Paddlefish. Your green fly sort of sounds like the "old adage" "an inch and green"! And the Royal Coachman, well....who wouldnt enjoy fishing with such a fly? :wink: