St. Vrain Angler

presents:

Fly Types: Bugs and their imitations

There are many fly types. For trout anglers imitating aquatic insects, however, there are four basic concepts of imitation. This is a term I first encountered reading Dave Whitlock's Guide To Aquatic Trout Foods. This book still stands as one of the clearest and most complete books of its type for trout anglers.

The four concepts are:

1. Suggestive: the fly looks like food and is the approximate shape of the bug.

2. Impressionistic: the fly is probably shaped about like the bug but has little detail.

3. Realistic: the fly is similar to the bug, but has less detail.

4. Exact: the fly looks like the bug.

What does this mean to those who fish? Well, put a fly in the right place where a hungry trout is feeding and you have a chance. If you enjoy fishing with more exact imitations, that's great.

What does it mean to fly tiers? Open the creative juices and decide how far you want to go when tying fake bugs. From top to bottom on the list, the flies take more skill and time to tie. Sometimes it is a good idea to spend time tying tougher flies in order to learn technique. Then, when we tie more basic patterns we can enjoy the process and tie them faster to fill our boxes.

Losing flies that are expensive or take a long time to tie is tough on our egos and pocket books. However, if we knew we could hook a lovely trout on any fly, we'd probably tie it on and give it a try regardless the expense.

Golden Stone Imitations

I tied ten sets of the above patterns. One each of Suggestive, Impressionistic, Realistic and Exact Golden Stonefly imitations. I'm going to offer the set of flies for $14.95. You can mount them in a shadow box, put them on your tying desk or send them to a favorite trout. When they are gone, they are gone.

In addition, I'm going to offer a tying booklet with step-by-step tying instructions and pictures of each pattern and the materials to tie three of each fly. The kits will be available in the shop or online for $14.95, as well.