Best Flies To Use When You Don’t Know What the Fish Want

When you head out to the river, how often are you 100% confident in knowing what flies you should tie on? Sure, if there’s a hatch going on, picking the right fly can be relatively straightforward. But if the fish aren’t active, what’s the process to use to pick a great fly?

Well, there are ways to figure out the perfect fly, but it’s always good to have a selection of go-to patterns you can confidently tie on when you’re just not sure what else to do.

Ken Baldwin has a list like that, over at Sports Illustrated. It includes some flies you’d expect, like the Elk Hair Caddis, but another one that I wouldn’t have put on the list if I was making it myself.

You can find the whole list here.