Real photos. Practical fishing advice.

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Identify a fly, compare common variations, and learn when, why, and how to fish it.

145 fly guides457 photos and views
01

Clear names. We keep exact patterns, families, and variations separate.

02

Real-photo rules. Every image shows its source and usage rights.

03

Useful river links. A seasonal fly suggestion is never presented as a live hatch report.

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145 fly guides

Nymph · #16–22 in the Orvis recipe

Zebra Midge

A sparse, fast-sinking midge-pupa pattern built from a slim thread body, open wire rib, and small bead.
Open field guide

Nymph · #12–20

Pheasant Tail Nymph

A compact mayfly-nymph pattern whose pheasant-tail fibers and copper rib create a slim, segmented profile.
Open field guide

Dry · #10–18

Elk Hair Caddis

A buoyant adult-caddis dry fly with a tented hair wing and palmered hackle that holds up in broken water.
Open field guide

Dry · #12–22

Parachute Adams

A highly visible mayfly-style dry with an upright post and hackle wrapped horizontally around that post.
Open field guide

Streamer · #6–12

Woolly Bugger

A mobile marabou-and-hackle streamer that can suggest several large food forms without being one exact imitation.
Open field guide

Emerger · Match the natural

RS2

Rim Chung's sparse beadless emerger or floating nymph, built with two split tails, a tightly dubbed tapered body, a compact thorax, and a clipped saddle-hackle-web wing.
Open field guide

Nymph · Orvis: #12–20

Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph

A rough, generalist nymph whose hare dubbing, metallic rib, tail, thorax, and wing case can suggest several immature aquatic insects without copying one species exactly.
Open field guide

Nymph · Original Doug Prince recipe: #6–12

Prince Nymph

A high-contrast searching nymph built from a peacock-herl body, gold rib, forked brown biot tail, swept brown hackle, and white biot V-wing; the reviewed bead-head form adds weight and flash.
Open field guide

Nymph · #12–18 are common starting sizes

Perdigon Nymph

A bead-led, resin-coated competition nymph built to reach fast or deep lanes with a small, low-drag profile.
Open field guide

Dry · #14–24 in the Orvis tying source

Griffith's Gnat

A simple peacock-herl and grizzly-hackle midge dry that can suggest one tiny adult, a clustered surface meal, or another very small insect at the film.
Open field guide

Emerger · #12–20 in the Fly Fishers International recipe

X-Caddis

Craig Mathews's low-riding, hackleless caddis transition pattern, built with a thin trailing shuck, dubbed body, and tented deer- or elk-hair wing.
Open field guide

Dry · #4–16

Stimulator

A buoyant hair-wing attractor and stonefly-style dry built for broken water and dry-dropper use.
Open field guide

Terrestrial · #6–16 in Umpqua's production range

Chubby Chernobyl

A high-floating foam-and-synthetic-yarn attractor with rubber legs, built to remain visible in broken water and suspend a proportionate dropper.
Open field guide

Dry · #14–18

PMD Comparadun

A low-riding, hackleless Pale Morning Dun dry with a fan-shaped deer-hair wing.
Open field guide

Fly family · Commonly #10–14

March Brown Dry Flies

A family destination for dry flies used around March Brown mayfly adults—not one exact recipe.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #14–24

Blue-Winged Olive Patterns

A stage-based family for olive-bodied mayfly nymphs, emergers, adults, cripples, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · Varies by species

Caddis Pupa Patterns

A family of subsurface caddis patterns spanning pupa, ascending emerger, and soft-hackle presentations.
Open family guide

Fly family · #4–18 depending on species

Stonefly Nymph Patterns

A broad family of two-tailed, bottom-oriented stonefly nymph imitations in many sizes and weights.
Open family guide

Fly family · #12–20

Ant Patterns

Dry and sunken terrestrial patterns unified by an ant's pinched waist and two-lobed body.
Open family guide

Fly family · #10–18

Beetle Patterns

Low-profile terrestrial patterns built to suggest a rounded beetle shell and short legs.
Open family guide

Fly family · #6–14

Grasshopper Patterns

A family of foam, hair, and low-riding dry flies used to imitate grasshoppers and other large terrestrials.
Open family guide

Fly family · #4–14

Leech Patterns

A mobile streamer family spanning marabou, rabbit-strip, balanced, and sparse leech profiles.
Open family guide

Fly family · #2–12

Sculpin Patterns

A bottom-oriented streamer family built around a broad head and tapered baitfish body.
Open family guide

Fly family · #10–20

Soft-Hackle Wet Flies

A family of sparse wet flies whose mobile feather collar suggests legs, wings, or an emerging insect.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match the water, quarry, and tackle

Trout Streamer Patterns

A planning family for general trout streamer wording when an exact named pattern or forage shape is not supplied.
Open family guide

Dry · #10–20

Adams Dry Fly

The classic upright-wing Adams: a gray-bodied dry with mixed brown-and-grizzly tail and hackle.
Open field guide

Nymph · #18–24

Black Beauty Midge

Pat Dorsey's sparse black midge-larva or pupa imitation with a fine rib and compact thorax.
Open field guide

Emerger · #16–24 in the Orvis standard recipe

WD-40

Mark Engler's sparse beadless emerger: one barred-fiber bunch forms the tail and wing case around a slim thread abdomen and tiny dubbed thorax.
Open field guide

Nymph · #18–24

Mercury Midge

Pat Dorsey's glass-bead midge pattern with a slim thread body and fine wire rib.
Open field guide

Emerger · #20–26

Top Secret Midge

Pat Dorsey's tiny brown midge emerger with a white thread rib, sparkle-organza wing, and rusty thorax.
Open field guide

Nymph · #16–24

Juju Baetis

Charlie Craven's slim Baetis-style nymph with a segmented synthetic body, wing case, and sparse profile.
Open field guide

Nymph · Small tailwater sizes

Micro May

A compact bead-head mayfly nymph used as a small dropper or in a multi-nymph rig.
Open field guide

Emerger · Hendrickson recipe: #12–16

Sparkle Dun

Craig Mathews's hackleless, flush-floating mayfly transition dry, distinguished from a Comparadun by its trailing Zelon shuck.
Open field guide

Dry · #12–18, matched to naturals

Rusty Spinner

A spent-wing mayfly pattern with a rust-brown body, divided tails, and flat outstretched wings.
Open field guide

Dry · #20–24

Trico Spinner

A very small spent-wing pattern for Trico spinner falls, with a sparse low flat profile.
Open field guide

Dry · #10–18

Royal Wulff

A buoyant hair-wing attractor with white upright wings, peacock body sections, and a red center band.
Open field guide

Emerger · #12–18

LaFontaine Sparkle Pupa

Gary LaFontaine's caddis-pupa design using a translucent Antron-style veil to suggest the emergence envelope.
Open field guide

Dry · Often #14–18

Sulphur Comparadun

A pale orange-yellow, hackleless Comparadun tied specifically for Sulphur mayfly duns.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · FFI and Orvis references: #12–18

Partridge and Orange

A traditional North Country-style soft hackle built from a slim orange body and sparse partridge collar, presented with two named comparison flies so users can identify it by construction instead of by collar feather alone.
Open field guide

Nymph · #10–20 in the Orvis tying recipe

Copper John

John Barr's dense attractor nymph, built around a bead, splayed biot tails, wire abdomen, peacock-style thorax, flash-backed dark wing case, and soft legs.
Open field guide

Fly family · Match the local insect

Mayfly Patterns by Stage

A stage-first guide for reports that name a mayfly but do not identify a species or exact fly.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #14–20

Pale Morning Dun Patterns

A stage-based PMD family spanning nymphs, emergers, duns, cripples, soft hackles, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #14–18

Sulphur Mayfly Patterns

A pale-mayfly stage family for Sulphur nymphs, emergers, duns, cripples, soft hackles, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #20–24

Trico Patterns

A tiny-mayfly family covering Trico nymphs, emergers, duns, clusters, and spent spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large mayfly sizes

Green Drake Patterns

A large-mayfly family for Green Drake nymphs, emergers, cripples, duns, and spinners where the hatch occurs.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large mayfly sizes

Brown Drake Patterns

A large-mayfly family separating Brown Drake nymphs, emergers, duns, and pale Coffin Fly spinner forms.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #12–16

Hendrickson Patterns

An eastern mayfly family spanning nymphs, emergers, duns, soft hackles, Sparkle Duns, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · The adult references range by species and generation

Callibaetis Patterns

A stillwater guide showing how real Callibaetis adults vary across three named species, and how to choose stage, size, and presentation without treating one mottled-wing dry as the whole hatch.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small mayfly sizes

Blue Quill Patterns

A small eastern mayfly family for Blue Quill nymphs, emergers, duns, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal hook size

Quill Gordon Patterns

An early eastern mayfly guide that uses three exact Epeorus pleuralis natural references to separate aquatic anatomy from wet, emerger, dry, and spinner fly choices.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #12–18

Light Cahill Patterns

A pale eastern mayfly family for Light Cahill nymphs, emergers, traditional or parachute dries, and spinners.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #10–14

Isonychia and Mahogany Dun Patterns

A stage-based Isonychia family, including report wording such as Mahogany Dun or Slate Drake.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large mayfly sizes

Hex Mayfly Patterns

A large-mayfly family for Hexagenia nymph, emerger, dun, and spinner imitations.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal hook size

Gray Fox Mayfly Patterns

A March Brown and Gray Fox naming guide that uses exact Maccaffertium vicarium natural references while keeping aquatic, emerger, dun, wet, and spinner choices separate.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #18–26

Midge Patterns by Stage

A stage-first midge family for larva, pupa, emerger, adult, and cluster patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match local species

Caddis Patterns by Stage

A lifecycle guide for caddis larva, pupa, emerger, adult, spent, and skated dry patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often large caddis sizes

October Caddis Patterns

A large fall-caddis family separating larva, pupa, wet or emerger, and adult dry forms.
Open family guide

Fly family · Species and instar vary

Caddis Larva Patterns

A bottom-stage guide separating exposed net-spinning larvae from portable-case builders without calling every green caddis larva a free-living rockworm.
Open family guide

Nymph · #6–10 in the coffee-and-black club guide

Pat's Rubber Legs

Pat Bennett's heavy chenille-and-rubber stonefly nymph: simple enough for a guide box, mobile enough for rough current, and variable enough that every bead, color, and hook form must be named.
Open field guide

Terrestrial · Multiple small-to-medium sizes

Hippie Stomper

Andrew Grillos's compact foam attractor with a visible wing, hackle, hair tail, and rubber legs.
Open field guide

Terrestrial · #8–14

PMX

A low-riding, highly visible all-purpose attractor with a parachute post, hair, hackle, and rubber legs.
Open field guide

Nymph · #8–12 in the Pacific Northwest guide

San Juan Worm

A deliberately simple subsurface worm pattern whose chenille, yarn, wire, or flexible body is secured along a curved hook, with every material and weighted form kept explicitly labeled.
Open field guide

Nymph · #10–12

Green Weenie

A bright chartreuse chenille pattern with a short looped tail, associated with Pennsylvania trout fishing.
Open field guide

Fly family · Varies widely by species and river

Stonefly Patterns by Stage

A stage-first guide separating bottom-oriented nymphs from emerging and adult stonefly patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often small stonefly sizes

Yellow Sally Patterns

A small-stonefly family separating dark or mottled nymphs from yellow-toned adult dry patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Adult patterns often #8–10

Skwala Stonefly Patterns

An early-season stonefly family with separate bottom nymph and low-riding olive adult patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large stonefly sizes

Golden Stonefly Patterns

A large-stonefly family separating robust golden nymphs from winged adult dry patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large stonefly sizes

Salmonfly Patterns

A very large stonefly family separating crawling nymphs from substantial adult dry patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small to medium stonefly sizes

Black Stonefly Patterns

A dark-stonefly family separating small black nymphs from winged adult patterns.
Open family guide

Fly family · Species and watershed dependent

Nocturnal Stonefly Patterns

A timing-and-stage guide that separates bottom nymphs, short-winged Claassenia evidence, and long-winged adult dries before a low-light stonefly choice is made.
Open family guide

Fly family · Tiny ants through very large cicadas

Terrestrial Patterns

A field guide separating ant, beetle, hopper, cricket, cicada, and general attractor silhouettes.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large terrestrials

Cicada Patterns

Large buoyant terrestrial patterns matched to locally present cicadas rather than one universal recipe.
Open family guide

Fly family · University of Minnesota Extension gives a 1/2–3/4 inch body range for field crickets

Cricket Patterns

A practical terrestrial guide using one North American field-cricket species to separate adult female, adult male, and wingless nymph silhouettes before choosing an honest floating artificial.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large surface flies relative to ordinary trout dries

Mouse Patterns

A surface-presentation guide that separates small-mammal body proportion, fly construction, and the wake a mouse pattern must create.
Open family guide

Fly family · Varies by pattern and regulation

Worm Patterns

A regulation-aware decision guide separating fine aquatic worms, aquatic blackworms, terrestrial earthworms, and the many artificial patterns that may suggest them.
Open family guide

Fly family · Aquatic Tipulidae larvae in the USU key span roughly 10–100 mm

Crane Fly Patterns

A stage guide separating elongated legless crane-fly larvae from gangly one-pair-wing adults while requiring local evidence before either becomes a fishing choice.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small dry-fly sizes

Mosquito Patterns

A life-stage guide separating the delicate winged adult from aquatic mosquito larvae and comma-shaped pupae before choosing a fly or waterline.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small to large

Foam Attractor Dry Patterns

A cross-insect family of buoyant foam dries built for visibility, flotation, and a suggestive terrestrial profile.
Open family guide

Streamer · Often #4–8

Coffey's Sparkle Minnow

Greg Coffey's cone-head, marabou-and-flash baitfish streamer for swinging, stripping, or controlled dead drifts.
Open field guide

Streamer · Commonly #6–12

Muddler Minnow

Don Gapen's classic sculpin-style streamer with a spun deer-hair head, mottled turkey wing, and metallic body.
Open field guide

Streamer · Pearl Zonker source: #2–6 on a 3X-long streamer hook

Zonker Streamer

Dan Byford's rabbit-strip baitfish streamer, reviewed through the traditional reflective Pearl Zonker while an exact weighted Point Up Zonker Sculpin variation makes the family range visible.
Open field guide

Streamer · #2–10 for the marabou form

Black Ghost Streamer

Herb Welch's black-bodied Maine streamer, represented here by the common white-marabou-wing form.
Open field guide

Streamer · #2–6 in the FFI guide

Gray Ghost

Carrie Stevens's layered Rangeley-style featherwing streamer with an orange body and long gray wing.
Open field guide

Streamer · #4–14

Mickey Finn

A classic sparse bucktail streamer with a yellow-red-yellow wing, metallic body, silver rib, and black head.
Open field guide

Fly family · Match the local forage and tackle

Baitfish and Minnow Patterns

A forage-first streamer family separating slim, weighted, reflective, and species-shaped baitfish silhouettes.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Articulated Trout Streamer Patterns

A construction-and-forage guide for choosing joint count, body depth, head shape, hooks, ballast, and retrieve before naming an articulated trout streamer.
Open family guide

Streamer · The FFI guide documents a #4 example

Clouser Deep Minnow

Bob Clouser's sparse dumbbell-eye baitfish pattern, designed for smallmouth bass and now used across fresh and salt water.
Open field guide

Streamer · No universal size

Chocklett's Game Changer

Blane Chocklett's multi-jointed baitfish platform, whose connected sections and front-to-rear taper keep swimming and turning after the strip stops.
Open field guide

Other · 2XL streamer hooks #4, #6, or #8 in the BSA tying guide

Sneaky Pete Slider

A tapered-head bass slider that glides, wakes, and pulses with less blunt surface noise than a cupped-face popper.
Open field guide

Other · FFI documents sizes #10 through #2 depending on target

Stealth Bomber

Kent Edmonds's folded-sheet-foam diver and slider for bass, bream, and other warmwater fish.
Open field guide

Fly family · Small panfish through large bass sizes

Bass and Panfish Popper Patterns

A surface family defined by a forward face that pushes, spits, or pops water rather than one exact recipe.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small panfish bugs through large bass flies

Warmwater Slider and Diver Patterns

A practical surface-action guide for choosing a quiet gliding slider or a strip-to-dive bug by prey shape, head action, cover, and fish response—not by color alone.
Open family guide

Fly family · Small panfish bugs through large bass flies

Warmwater Surface Bug Patterns

A construction-and-silhouette family for foam, deer-hair, frog, and other warmwater surface bugs without an exact pattern name.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match local crayfish and quarry

Crayfish and Crawfish Patterns

A bottom-oriented family separating realistic, buggy, jigged, and molting crayfish silhouettes.
Open family guide

Fly family · Large nymph sizes

Hellgrammite Patterns

A large aquatic-larva family with an elongated segmented body, lateral filaments, six thoracic legs, and paired terminal hooks.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match local nymphs

Damselfly Nymph Patterns

A slender stillwater-and-slow-water nymph family with a narrow body and three leaf-like tail gills.
Open family guide

Fly family · Mature size varies widely by family and instar

Dragonfly Nymph Patterns

A natural-body-plan guide separating streamlined swimming darners from broader crawling and burrowing dragonfly nymphs without collapsing all Odonata into one weighted olive fly.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match local forage, target species, and tackle

Warmwater Baitfish Patterns

A warmwater forage family separating shad-shaped, articulated, lightly weighted, and general minnow streamers.
Open family guide

Fly family · Common examples span roughly #4–12, but fly mass, prey scale, water depth, leader, and fish behavior matter more than the family label

Carp Fly Patterns

A sight-fishing decision guide for choosing a carp fly by the fish's feeding lane, prey shape, landing softness, sink rate, and hook orientation instead of one universal pattern.
Open family guide

Fly family · Match prey, target fish, and tackle

Warmwater Bottom Bug and Swimming Nymph Patterns

A planning family for jigged, rubber-legged, swimming, and bottom-oriented warmwater nymph wording without an exact recipe.
Open family guide

Egg Flesh · #12–14 in the Orvis trout recipe

Sucker Spawn

A looped-yarn egg-cluster pattern whose connected bulges create a longer, irregular food profile than a single round egg fly.
Open field guide

Egg Flesh · #6–12 in the Orvis single-hook bead recipe

Egg-Sucking Leech

A mobile leech or streamer body combined with a distinct contrasting egg-like front trigger, with bead, cone, tube, rabbit-strip, articulated, and Woolly-Bugger-based forms kept explicitly labeled.
Open field guide

Egg Flesh · Mustad C67S #12 in the Orvis recipe

Glo Bug

A sparse clipped-yarn egg fly whose round body and optional contrasting center dot create a compact single-egg profile around a visible hook.
Open field guide

Egg Flesh · No universal size

Estaz Egg

A bright egg-style fly built from dense sparkly Estaz or similar chenille around the hook.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · Approximately two inches in the Orvis recipe

Hoh Bo Spey

Charles St. Pierre's sparse Intruder-style steelhead fly with a compact shank, dubbing station, flash, and marabou collar.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Green Butt Skunk

A classic steelhead hairwing built around a fluorescent-green butt, dark body, silver rib, dark hackle, and pale wing.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Freight Train

A classic Pacific Northwest steelhead hairwing with fluorescent butt sections, a dark body, and a sparse pale wing.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Silver Hilton

A classic dark steelhead wet fly distinguished by a silver body and dark feather or hair wing.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Brindle Bug

A compact classic steelhead wet fly with a mottled dark body, contrasting hackle, and simple low-water profile.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Comet

A bright West Coast salmon and shad fly built around a long tail, chenille body, palmered or collared hackle, and prominent eyes.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · No universal size

Polar Shrimp

A classic salmon and steelhead hairwing whose orange-red body and pale wing suggest—but do not literally copy—a shrimp.
Open field guide

Saltwater · No universal size

Lefty's Deceiver

Lefty Kreh's adaptable baitfish style combining a feather tail with a bucktail collar that resists fouling.
Open field guide

Saltwater · Original saltwater recipe: #4–2/0

Gartside Gurgler

Jack Gartside's original one-piece-foam surface commotion fly: sparse tail, five segmented foam sections, palmered hackle, over-shell, and a raised front lip.
Open field guide

Saltwater · No universal hook size

Crease Fly

Joe Blados's folded-foam baitfish fly: a narrow hollow shell that floats, pops, wakes, and pushes water without becoming a cylindrical popper.
Open field guide

Saltwater · Traditional FFI reference: Tiemco 811S #4 or equivalent

Merkin Crab

Del Brown's weighted hook-point-up crab fly: splayed hackle claws and flash, a flat trimmed body, mobile rubber legs, and dumbbell ballast arranged to descend at an angle.
Open field guide

Saltwater · No universal production size

Double Deceiver

A long, articulated baitfish platform that carries Deceiver-style feather, bucktail, flash, or synthetic volume across connected rear and front tying sections.
Open field guide

Saltwater · No universal size

Half-and-Half

A Clouser-and-Deceiver hybrid pairing a feather tail with a dumbbell-eye bucktail front section.
Open field guide

Fly family · No universal family size

EP Minnow & EP-Style Baitfish

A source-controlled family guide for synthetic-fiber baitfish commonly reported as EP minnows or EP-style baitfish, compared through three distinctly named dressings instead of one invented universal recipe.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Egg Fly Patterns

A family separating tied yarn, chenille, veiled, clustered, and other hook-mounted egg imitations from loose beads and bait.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Flesh Fly Patterns

A natural-food family for flies that suggest salmon-flesh fragments carried downstream after spawning, with compact, articulated, washed-out, fresh-color, and egg-and-flesh forms kept distinct.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Intruder-Style Steelhead Flies

Ed Ward's large-profile, sparsely dressed swing-fly concept for salmon and steelhead, now tied on shanks and tubes in many colors and material systems.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Tube Fly Patterns

A construction-first guide to flies tied on a hollow tube rather than directly on a hook shank, with the body, leader path, junction system, replaceable hook, tube material, and exact fly pattern kept as separate decisions.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Steelhead Wet, Spey, and Hairwing Patterns

An orientation guide to classic swung steelhead flies, keeping compact hairwings, long-hackled Spey styles, sparse low-water wets, and marabou attractors separate from modern Intruder and tube constructions.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Steelhead Skater and Bomber Patterns

A surface family separating waking or riffle-hitched skaters from bushy floating Bomber-style dries.
Open family guide

Fly family · NOAA's Atlantic salmon presence table gives a 2–3 cm alevin range

Salmon Alevin Patterns

A lifecycle-first alevin guide showing the tiny translucent fish and attached yolk sac clearly enough to separate it from an egg fly, free-feeding fry, parr, smolt, or generic orange-bead streamer.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Anadromous Baitfish and Coho Streamer Patterns

A migratory-fish streamer family for emerald shiners, smelt, sparse flash flies, and bright coho-oriented baitfish forms.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size: the cited Single-Wing example uses a 1/0 hook, but feather length, hook, body depth, and overall fly length must match the target forage and tackle

Flatwing Streamer Patterns

A prey-first flatwing guide using real silverside and sand-lance photography to separate translucency, body depth, side flash, and habitat before the angler chooses feather count, support, line, and retrieve.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal fly size: match the locally observed sand lance or sand-eel report by body length and depth

Sand Eel Fly Patterns

A coastal guide comparing two named sand-lance forms and one natural school before choosing the length, depth, flexibility, and flash of an honestly labeled sand-eel imitation.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Saltwater Crab Fly Patterns

A saltwater crab selection guide for matching shell width, claw proportion, leg motion, swimming ability, bottom posture, ballast, and hook orientation to the exact coast and target.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Shrimp and Mysis Fly Patterns

A crustacean family separating translucent grass shrimp, compact mysis, spawning shrimp, and larger saltwater shrimp profiles.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Shad Fly and Dart Patterns

A small bright migratory-shad family covering weighted darts, compact Comet-style flies, and sparse pink or chartreuse wets.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Pike and Musky Predator Fly Patterns

A large-predator family separating long synthetic baitfish, rabbit-strip streamers, articulated profiles, divers, and surface flies.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Saltwater Baitfish Fly Patterns

A broad coastal family for bunker, anchovy, silverside, synthetic-minnow, and weedless baitfish forms without a named recipe.
Open family guide

Nymph · #12–18 in the Orvis variant

Pink Squirrel

John Bethke's Driftless-region attractor nymph with a buggy squirrel-dubbing body and unmistakable fluorescent-pink thorax.
Open field guide

Nymph · Often #12–18

Ray Charles Sowbug

A Bighorn-origin sowbug pattern with a soft ostrich-herl body, pearl flashback, and bright thread head.
Open field guide

Nymph · Orvis standard: #14 on a standard nymph hook

Frenchie Nymph

A slim competition-style Pheasant Tail derivative that replaces the traditional PT thorax and legs with a bright dubbed thorax or collar, a Coq de Leon tail, durable wire rib, and fast-sinking bead.
Open field guide

Nymph · #12–22 in the Orvis recipe

Rainbow Warrior

Lance Egan's compact pearl-and-red attractor nymph, combining a silver bead, pheasant-tail tail, reflective Flashabou abdomen and wing case, rainbow dubbing thorax, and red collar.
Open field guide

Streamer · #4–12 on a Tiemco 5263 in the olive Orvis recipe

Slumpbuster

John Barr's conehead pine-squirrel streamer, combining a reflective braid body, wire-ribbed hide strip, broad mobile collar, and long tail in a compact single-hook profile.
Open field guide

Wet Fly · Traditional wet-fly sizes vary

Montreal Wet Fly

A historic Canadian winged wet fly with a red tail, dark ribbed body, dark hackle, and mottled light-and-dark wing.
Open field guide

Fly family · Commonly #12–18 in the Simple Scud

Scud Fly Patterns

A freshwater amphipod family defined by a curved shellback, segmented body, many short legs, and locally variable size and color.
Open family guide

Fly family · Often #12–18 in tailwater patterns

Sowbug and Cress Bug Patterns

A freshwater isopod family with a flattened oval body and overlapping dorsal segmentation, distinct from the side-curved scud profile.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

General Nymph Patterns

A deliberately broad family for source rows that identify only a nymph's size, weight, or general profile—not its insect or recipe.
Open family guide

Fly family · No universal size

Jig Fly Patterns

A hook-and-weighting family in which an angled jig hook—and commonly a compatible slotted bead—supports compact nymphs, bottom bugs, and mobile streamers without turning those different bodies into one pattern.
Open family guide

Fly family · Utah State University Extension gives a natural-larva range of roughly 3–12 mm

Black Fly Larva Patterns

A flowing-water larva guide separating the club-shaped Simuliidae body, attached colony behavior, and compact cocooned pupa so a tiny dark recommendation does not collapse into a midge or generic thread fly.
Open family guide

Fly family · The Fly Fish Food Split Case PMD source describes #16–20

Split-Case Nymph Patterns

A construction guide that separates the bright divided wing-case cue from the natural mayfly body, exact PMD or BWO identity, bead, and fishing depth.
Open family guide