Best Selling Trout Fishing Flies

 Fly fishing for trout is so solidly enjoyable, I cannot think of a single thing not to like. They are beautiful, tough fish that fights hard, lives in cold water, often their rivers and lakes are beautiful, go after hatches and streamers, and eggs, and there is a lot of species in the trout family, all having their own characteristics. 

 Two relatively new methods of fishing for trout, Euro Nymphing, and Trout Spey, have diversified the approaches to trout, which have traditionally used a floating line, and more often than not a 9 foot 5 weight fly rod. Euro Nymphing is extremely popular and a whole new style of trout fishing fly has been invented around it. But Euro Nymphing seems to be another tool in the fly angler’s toolbox, and not really replacing dry fly fishing or more traditional nymphing using a standard floating line. 

This is noticeable when you look at the top 20 selling patterns year after year. Big Y Fly Co has been selling trout flies since 2004, and our top 20 list has changed during that time, but not that much. It is as follows: 

• Parachute Adams 

• Blue Wing Olive

• Elk Hair Caddis

• Adams 

• Beadhead Prince 

• Beadhead Squirmy Worm                                                                              
BH Squirmy Worm

• Rainbow Warrior 

• Beadhead Emerger BWO                                       

• Beadhead Pheasant Tail 

• Quill Gordon 

• Beadhead Flashback Pheasant Tail 

• Beadhead Frenchie Nymph

• Parachute BWO 

• Perdigon 

• Squirmy Worm 

• Big Ugly Stone 

• Euro Zebra Midge

• Beadhead Hare’s Ear 

• Beadhead Blowtorch 

• Beadhead Copper John 

Out of the twenty patterns of best selling trout fishing flies, only 6 patterns were not on the list 12 years ago. And one, the Euro Zebra Midge, isn’t new per se, just on a different hook. The point is not to try new patterns, frankly I fish almost all new patterns just to see what happens, but it is note how well the old standards show up year after year. They still fool trout, they still produce fish, they have stood the test of time. You can also gauge a fly’s popularity by how many variations they spawn, I have lost count how many variations of the pheasant tail there are, or variations of the Adams. Slight twists on classic patterns will often produce fish when the standards have been seen so many times, especially by trout that are pressured by anglers. 

 Flies that have stumbled a bit, are the Hare’s Ear, Beadhead Flashback Prince, Prince Nymph and Griffith’s Gnat, maybe it is time to tie one of these on! It is easy to see the best selling flies in any of our basic categories right on our website. The below Filter Options box is available on all fly categories on our left hand navigation on our website. So, you can easily find Best Sellers in Streamers or Wet Flies or any other category.