Top 20 flies

[phatcat]

Hi there, I'm new to fly fishing in general and wanted to know what the top 20 or so flies would be to have in one's arsenal for fishing Vancouver Island. I know it's a bit of a loaded question....
Thanks!
Jen

[Stoney Creek]

What kind of fish?
Trout, bass, salmon, coarse fish, beach fish (flounder/cabezon)?
Also what kind of fishing? Beach/rivers/lakes?

My TOP pattern is the one I posted in the fly tying section under "need your opinion". I call it the SC Needle...
Other than that I'll need answers on where you plan to fish and for what species.

[andy.larkin]

Top 20? Jeez! That's alot.. here's a few for lakes and rivers that should be able to get you into fish year round..

Lakes:
-Brown Wooly Bugger - Size 8
-Ice Cream Cone Chironomid - Size 12
-Maroon/Claret seals fur leech - size 8, size 12
-Black Vampire Leech - Size 6, Size 10
-Blood Worm Pattern - Size 12
-Deerhair Gomphus
-Pumpkinhead
-Muddler Minnow
-Doc Spratley
-Carey Special
-Elk Hair Caddis
-Tom Thumb
-Pheasant Tail
-Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear
-Diawl Bach
-Black/Fl. Orange or White/Fl. Orange Booby
-Herl Mayfly Nymph
-Halfback Nymph
-Clouser Minnow
-Orange tag Zulu

Rivers (all of these with tungsten beads..):
-Cased Caddis
-Orange collar'd/hotspot Pheasant Tail
-Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear
-Prince Nymph
-copper john
-orange hotspot Czech Nymph
-beadhead muddler
-beadhead/conehead wooly bugger
-bowriver bugger
-tom thumb
-elk hare caddis
-"The usual" (snowshoe hare dry fly)
-Adams
-glo bugs or some form of egg pattern for the fall

[phatcat]

Thanks for the replies- I was thinking I'd go trout in the lakes and rivers and salmon on the beach (hopefully soon!). This has given me a great grocery list to start with!
J

[Stoney Creek]

Thanks for the replies- I was thinking I'd go trout in the lakes and rivers and salmon on the beach (hopefully soon!). This has given me a great grocery list to start with!
J

Salmon on Beach :

SC Needle - both sizes 6" long and 3" long. BIG for springs, small for coho and cutties.
Mickey Finn - Coho/cutties
California Neil - Coho/Cutties
Clouser Minnows in chartruese, pink, blue, yellow, orange - coho/pinks
Pink Handlebar - Pinks
Large Pink Intruder - pinks
Shrimp Patterns - coho/pinks/springs/cutties

That's pretty much all you'll need for beaches.... Some other people may be able to add a couple.

[btree]

Trout & Steelhead in Rivers:

# 4, 6 & 8 Black wooly bugger with bead head, a silver rib and some flash in the tail
# 4, 6 & 8 Olive wooly bugger with bead head, a gold rib and some flash in the tail
# 4 & 6 Egg sucking leach -orange bead head + black body and also a pink bead head with a purple body
# 8 & 10 Tomthumb tied with black thread, yellow thread, green thread and orange thread
# 10 & 12 elk hair caddis or just more #10 & 12 tomthumbs - like scotch, they get better with age ie. the more beat up they get, the better. All those thread colours start to pay off when the tomthumb is really beat up and the thread colour shows through to cover your bases for bug colours. You can do a decent job of fooling fish that key on mayflies, caddis and stones with one fly. But with well trained fish, you will need more specific patterns to fool fish that are keying on mayflies. I used to stress a lot about mayflies, but now I just cover more water and find the willing players rather than fuss over that one fish which rises only to a specific colour & size mayfly.
#6, 8 & 10 muddler minnow - gold body and silver body and a couple with bead heads or dumbell eyes

Salmon (pinks & coho)
# 8 & 10 pink handlebar, and a couple with a charteuse bead head
# 8, 10 & 12 califonia neil in chartreuse
# 8, 10 & 12 kelsey's hope
# 10 & 12 mickey finn
# 8, 10 & 12 clousers in chartreuse/white, pink/white, blue/white
# 4 & 6 flash fly (bait fish)

Of course it's hard to leave out all the exceptional flies that you will eventually want to fill the voids of curiosity and eventually necessity on those strange days when only purple or blue will do, or when coho are only taking # 14 hairs ear nymphs, but sometimes it's just a good idea to pack some sort of libation, sit back, relax and watch the fish jump.

Tis the season! Fish are about!