Eight flies will cover almost everything that eats near a temperate beach in summer — stripers, bluefish, near-shore reds, and the long list of opportunists that follow them into the wash. Not eight hundred, not the two drawers of patterns a fly shop will happily sell you. Eight. Four of them are named flies most saltwater anglers already know: the Clouser Deep Minnow, Lefty’s Deceiver, the half-and-half, and a gurgler. The other four are forage jobs — a sand eel, a small baitfish, a crab, and a shrimp. Carry those in a few colors and two weights and you can fish the summer coast from Maine to the mid-Atlantic, with enough range left over for warm-water reds in the Southeast.

The reason eight is enough comes down to how these fish feed. A trout sips a single mayfly off the surface and won’t be fooled by the wrong size. A striped bass, a bluefish, or a redfish working a beach is a generalist, eating whatever bait the tide has concentrated in the wash or pinned against a rip. That changes the job. Instead of matching one insect, you’re matching one of four silhouettes: a slim baitfish, a deep-bodied baitfish, a crustacean, or something making a commotion on top. Get the silhouette, the size, and the depth right, and the fish rarely cares about the rest.