Best Wet or Dry Fly Patterns for Trout
Our Top 20 Best Sellers
Our ‘best of’ Trout fly selection includes some of the most iconic dry and wet flies. Between the patterns featured for sale here, you have flies that can be fished in all seasons, on all types of water, and in all weather conditions.
We’d always recommend buying a diverse selection of patterns for your fly box. Don’t chance arriving at the right time to fish a hatch. Don’t be stuck if they’re just not biting at what you’re throwing. Try a different type of fly, a different casting and retrieve technique, and surprise yourself!
Emergers & Dry Flies
No list of top Trout flies would be complete without specific Mayfly patterns such as the Blue Winged Olive as well as other Duns/Comparaduns that can be fished to represent the above-water stages of not only Mayfly but also Caddis and Stonefly.
Mayfly might be the best known, but they are not the only aquatic insects to hatch in prodigious numbers: both Caddis and Stonefly make up a significant part of the diet of Trout in waterways where they hatch, mate, lay their eggs and then die. Both of them provide a larger mouthful than most Mayfly do. Our advice on dry flies would be to diversify: buy patterns that represent pupae, emergers and mature adults, and maximize your options on the day.
We have further Dry Trout Flies for sale here.
Nymphs (Wet Flies) for Trout
In many areas, the hatching season is all too fleeting, but anywhere there are hatches there are also larvae. Most Caddis and nearly all Mayfly have an annual life cycle, but two years is not unheard of, and some species of Stonefly spend three years as nymphs. No matter how grey and grim the day Trout will be on the lookout for larvae, so buy some matching patterns and be sure to pack them to give yourself sufficient choice on the day.
We have a wide range of Trout Nymphs for sale here.
Don’t Forget the Terrestrials!
Many anglers overlook the fact that, in some areas, Grasshoppers, Crickets and other terrestrial insects provide at least as much food for Trout as aquatic insects: indeed, stomach content studies have shown that land-based insects frequently make up the better part of Trout diet in some areas for many months of the year. Some waterways do not have large hatches, and even in those that do the Trout are still on the lookout for these bigger bites, which fall in the water more often than you might think (and often surprisingly late in the season).
We have more Hoppers and other Terrestrial Trout Flies for sale here.
Our Favorite Trout Streamers
The bigger the fish, the more it can fit in its mouth. Streamer flies help the angler to tap into the predatory nature of mature Trout by catching the eye and emulating the movement of small fish, amphibians and small aquatic mammals such as voles. When it comes to streamers, the undisputed heavyweight champion of them all is the Wooly Bugger (aka Woolly Bugger): if you’re only going to buy one Streamer, make it this one.
