Top 10 Dry Flies For Rainbow Trout

Top Trout Dry Flies - The Best Dries For Your Rainbow Trout Stillwater Fly Fishing

Which Dry Flies Should You Take For Rainbows On Reservoirs, Lakes and Lochs?

One of the most frequently asked questions on telephone to our staff is what trout dry flies should I use. We thought we'd list our Essential Flies that are always in our fly boxes when we go stillwater fly fishing.

Flies fall into 4 categories for Rainbows, Dries, Nymphs, Buzzers and Lures or Streamers. These are used at different times according to the feeding patterns of the fish. Here we will make our recommendations of the dry flies that go into our fly boxes. These patterns may change through the year as different hatches occur. Check our hatch charts available to registered users every month.

In this blog post we will focus just on dry flies. There are dry flies that work all year and some which are more seasonal however all these are fly patterns you will find in the teams fly boxes.

Midges	Midges hatch every day of the year, trout can be seen hitting emerging buzzers which turn into midges. Try Griffiths Gnat, IOTBB (It Ought To Be Banned) and F Fly Patterns when midges hatch Our favourite: Griffiths Gnat size 18
Emergers	Emergers Imitate the stage at which buzzers turn to midges. Float individually or on a floating line with 2 or 3 emergers in a team. With the butt below the surface Our favorite emerger:
Daddies	Daddy Long Legs or craneflies are an autumnal favorite for trout, big bodies and weak fliers mean the fall into the water with the slightest breeze. Deadly close to the bank from April to First frosts as a dry fly or breadhead pattern.
Sedges	Sedges or caddis can be seen skating across the water from April to October. These work well twitched like the natural or even with buzzers suspender underneath
Olives	Pond Olives and Lake olives are regularly seen hatching around stillwaters and olive coloured dries are always a pattern to keep in your fly box.
Generic Patterns	There are some deadly generic patterns that are in our fly boxes on every water we visit. These are the must have patterns that should be in your fly box, Klinkhammers are a pattern that lifts trout to the surface when many patterns fail. The other generic pattern always in the fly box is Parachute Adams which is a great all round performer.

Although there are many other dry flies that work during the year like Hawthorns, Damsels often seen darting and hoppers these are our go to fly patterns to imitate dries on stillwaters. Foam flies like snail patterns work well in autumn but it is the core patterns above that always catch trout when they are on the surface looking for naturals.