My brother and I are planning a fishing trip to western MT. The water mostly holds Cutthroat, what fly would be the best during late summer. i.e. Labor Day weekend.

There are certain flies that are a must in any flybox. This time of year I would reccommend:

Hoppers; Dave's and parachute in sizes 6-10, remember to go smaller on hoppers, too many times people want to use too big a hopper.

Elk hair caddis in 18, 16 and even a 14 size.

Sparkle Duns in 16 and 18 sizes.

PMD in a comparadun pattern, again in 16 and 18 sizes.

Attracter patterns will also be good in Royal Trude and Royal Wulff, sizes 14, 16 and 18.

Parachute Adams would be another good stand by in 16 and 18 sizes.

Leader sizes are important as will depending on clarity and surface conditions of the water. 5X and 6X tippet are usually the best. You can get away with 4X with the hoppers if there is a chop on the water.

If you don't get something with those, you can't flyfish.

+1 on what schrapnel said.

Probably the only fly I might change would be a orange stimulator instead of a royal trude. Minor difference and they both work.

The only thing else might be a couple of all purpose nymphs or wets.

prince nymph

birdnest nymph gold ribbed hares ear

pheasant tail nymph - small sizes #16 or #18

black wooly bugger - #8

These are all purpose wets and the sizes really depend on how you plan to fish them as in alone (wooly bugger), under an indicator or as a dropper.

It's more technical fishing and if you could get away with a just a dry fly, I'd stick with that. If your new to flyfishing don't even bother with the wet flies, just fish the drys. It's far more fun.

Except on the larger rivers (Madison and Yellowstone scale), cuts don't seem to be all that selective. One that I would add to the selection is a few gold ribbed hares ears (wet fly). Fish them straight across and let them swing until they are dangling straight down stream. They work well for me on Wyoming streams from Labor day until the last of Oct. Not fished there any later in the year. An upstream dead drift works well on rainbows.

Old age moment. Skip my advice on a bird nest nymph and go with the gold ribbed hare's ear. That's what I was trying to think of in the first place. They work mo better.

I've been fired up about flyfishing lately so I'm probably yacking too much. I'll add one more fly to the list of go type patterns. A black gnat in size 16 or 18. They can be dead drifted, fished wet, stipped in short pulls, or on the swing.

With a basic fly selection like schrapnel's excellent list it gives you plenty of variety in color, shape, profile and size to cover a wide range of "bugs" that trout eat. Beyond a basic selection like that you start getting into specialty flies and the list becomes endless.

Tight lines to you.

Thank you. I have some of the ones mentioned, but will pick up the others. I am slowly getting back into flyfishing so need all the advice I can get.

We went up to Lincoln, MT last week and fished one of the smaller streams. My brothers used spinners, but I stuck with the flies. I caught 3 cuts all day and had several more go after my fly, but couldn't pick the up. I used dries mostly, but when it started to rain hard I switched to a Copper John nymph and picked up my last fish of the day.

I had fun, but was determined to get the flies to work. They did for the most part though I was a little slow.

This whole discussion was brings to light an issue a friend is having in not catching as many fish as he would like to. He's been struggling with fly fishing. I met up with him last year on a fishing trip to South Dakota last year. He's kinda new to the sport but had gone hog wild on buying flies. He had hundreds of flies of all types and sizes.

The problem is, he has a lot of stuff that I wouldn't fish with or they certainly wouldn't be my first or even second choice in what to tie on. I think he's hurting himself by not sticking to tried and true basic patterns. All the flies mentioned here are time tested proven winners. They just work day in and day out.

We did a fly swap but I could hardly find anything in his boxes and boxes of flies that I was interested in.

It's that old KISS priniciple.

Fish head: My experiences mirror yours. When I first started tying and fishing, I had boxes and boxes of creations taken from books, and changed flies all day long. As I matured and identified a few true producers, a lot of those eventually rusted away due to lack of use. I'm sure each had it's speciality application, but were mostly wanting for general use.

For trout now, I go with about 7 different patterns, and typically one or another will get the job done. My goto fly is the gold ribbed hares ear. I'll admit that dry flies are a kick when fish are in the mood, but I can nearly always count on a hares ear. About the only time I get shut down is when some size 28 midge does an evening rise on some lake.

A fun aspect of summer steelhead fishing is that they seem to take whatever one wants to wave in their face. One can let the creative juices flow when building steelhead flies.

A couple mayfly patterns, scuds, midges, caddis, stonefles, hopper, damsel flies, and minnow like streamers, and I feel pretty good about any trout spot I happen on.

I love fishing flies but it seems that most of the time it requires a nymph pattern of some sort. I was first taught the "hopper/dropper" on the nearby Slate and that is a hard combo to beat. Mind you the hopper does not have to be a hopper pattern, but the parachute Adams works well dragging a bead head pheasant tail around these parts most of the time.

When they are hitting the top, Caddis or Royal Wulff always gets action, go small though.

Now that you mention the dropper, I remember my dad during that years ago. I doubt he fished much without the pattern.

Cutties generally aren't too selective and they are pretty eager to take a dry fly too. In Sept, fish should be starting to feel the cooler nights, shorter days and be stocking up on food for the winter.

Dries
Caddis 14-16
Chernobyl Ants of some sort, big and small
Hoppers of various sizes and colors. I like gray a lot.
Ants and beetles always.
Grey Wulff 12-18
Parachute Adams 12-18
Stimulator 12-18

Nymphs
All in various sizes.
Hares Ear
Copper John in Red, Copper & Blk(Winter Stones)
Prince
Pheasant Tail

I'd have a handful of blk streamers, Double Bunny's, and sculpin patterns.

Thanks guys for all your help

Great advice by all.


For Mt cuts orange stimi's in 14 work great too
And as Shrapnel mentioned comparaduns for more pressured fish.
Ant patterns and for nymphs: lightning bugs , prince in 16-20 work well too
5x IMO

I'll follow with another question. When I was a kid we used to fish the western part of the state when visiting our grandparents. In the creeks and rivers was a bug that we call "Rock Worms". They were up to an inch long and fat. The front half is like a black bug while the back half was was worm like with 2 graspers to hold them in their shell.

In late July, early August they would seal off their shell (made from small pebbles) and attach themselve to the rocks. When emerging they were rust colored on the back and paler underneath. Great fish bait.

What are they?

We have similar in this side of the divide, but much smaller and more numerouse.

The general group of case makers is the caddis flies (Order Trichoptera). Rock worm is a common name for a larval form of one family, but they are not case builders. The only case builders the size you are referring to in western MT is the sedge family, with probably over 100 species in the west.

Well, like I said, we called them rock worms as kids and they do build cases from pebbles. I'll have to look up the sedge family.

Just another family in the order of caddisflies. One of the most varied and plentiful in the west.

Thanks

One streamer I am never without is the Alexandra in sizes 8-12 in small rivers/creeks. 2-6 in bigger rivers. It is a bright fly with a lively peacock wing. You tie the wing with long, irridescent swords instead of the herl used for bodies. The red tail and cheeks are killer. Normally it has a silver embossed tinsel body but I have used copper with great results as well.
Fish it slowly in a deep pool or rip it across a moderate riffle.

That is one I have never seen in the stores. At least that I can remember.

It is a classic pattern so not often seen in shops these days.
Mainly a brookie pattern, cutthroats and rainbows find it hard to resist as well. Can be tied as either a streamer or wet fly.

I looked it up and read it originated in England around the turn of the last century. Best as a lake fly, but can be effective on rivers so the article said. Pretty fly.

That is correct, it originated in the UK, for a period of time there were locales that outlawed its use as it was considered too effective or deadly. It was mainly trolled as a streamer in lakes there.
When it was brought to North America, it was/is used very effectively in rivers and lakes. It was/is tied as both a streamer and as a wet fly here.
A very cool fly!

Well, I just got back from the fishing trip. The only fly that produced was a Grey Hackle Yellow. For awhile the trout couldn't leave it alone. One fish was caught on a Copper John. Then the weather turned colder dropping 20-30 degrees the next day. Tried nymphing, but no luck.

That's interesting. That's one fly I almost put on the list. It's an old, old standard producer at times. I remember using em as kid and just recently got a bunch in 100 fly assorment I bought off of ebay.

Yes. We used them a lot as kids. I haven't been able to find them on this side of the divide, but they had them at Bob Wards in Missoula. I bought several.