Fly Choice: "Observation is the Key"

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Recently retired fly fishing instructor Ken Allen of Maine offers some excellent tips on deciding fly choices, beginning with astute observation of insect size, color and silhouette. He also reminds us that seasonal color patterns make an excellent starting point:

“Early spring duns often have black or gray bodies with dark wings, tails and legs. In mid- to late-spring, brown, dark olive and tan bodies with medium-dark appendages predominate, and by early summer, flies often have light olive, cream or sulfur bodies and light legs, tails and wings.” In the Portland Press Herald.