The flies in John Barr's boxes catch trout anywhere in the United States and represent most of the food trout feed on. Many of his flies are generic and imitate several insect species, reducing the number of different patterns he carries in his boxes. (John Randolph photo)
December 13, 2024
By John Barr
This article originally appeared in the May 2005 issue of Fly Fisherman.
You can't carry enough flies to cover every fishing situation you encounter, but most of us fish the same waters year after year and have an idea of the imitations we need to carry. In this article I am going to discuss the core patterns in my box for fishing in the Rockies. I only use some of them for specific situations, but instead of trying to remember to add a particular pattern for a seasonal hatch, I generally carry all my flies. Many of these patterns work equally well for hatches in the East.
I fish for trout primarily in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho from early...
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