question: Top 5 flies

[fflutterffly]

I am sure this has been discussed before. What would be your pick for the 5 most important wet flies in your box? You only get 5!! I don't have that list yet, since my wet fly life has been short, but I do know that, for my rivers, very small black wet flies fit the bill.

[redietz]

The ones that get the most for me (and hence are the most important):

1) Partridge and Orange
2) Grouse & Herl
3) Waterhen Bloa
4) Snipe & Purple
5) Dark Hendrickson (you didn't specify wingless wets)

Those are in no particular order, but I go through a lot of each every year.

[Mike Connor]

This and similar questions have been asked countless times and appear on some board or other every day. The truth is there is no satisfactory answer, and a great deal depends on what you mean by "important".

The flies that catch the most fish? Depends on how and where you fish as much as on the Flies. The flies that catch the biggest fish? The flies that caught your best fish? The flies that caught most of your fish? The cheapest? The most versatile? The easiest to dress? All valid criteria along with many others.

There are too many variables involved to give a sensible answer.

You could ask what selection of flies, limited to five, would you choose for the type of fishing you do. You would still get massive variation, although less so on a board like this dedicated to a certain general type of fly, and no substantiated data, but you might find a trend of sorts towards some patterns. This is even more "impossible", ( although I know "impossible" is an absolute! ), nowadays than it might once have been. Not too long ago it was possible for an angler to know the majority of useful patterns extant. This has long become quite impossible. There are too many anglers in too many different circumstances and too many patterns.

TL
MC

[redietz]

The ones that get the most for me (and hence are the most important):

I left out a word: should have read ... that get the most use for me ...

Mike -
I agree it's an unanswerable question in any objective sense. Part of the fun, however is defining "most important". For me, it's simply "which do I use the most?"

[Old Hat]

So with that, I will answer like this, if I were going on a vacation, traveling the country fishing, and I could only take 5 wingless wet fly patterns they would be as follows:

Red hackle peacock
Hare's ear flymph
Pheasant tail soft hackle
Iron blue dun
Grouse and green thorax

[letumgo]

Partridge-Orange-Peacock soft hackle (POP fly)
Partridge-Yellow-Peacock soft hackle (PYP fly)
Gold ribbed hares ear soft hackle
Pheasant tail soft hackle
Black woolly bugger (long and slender soft hackle version of a leech)

[fflutterffly]

Oh Mike sweetie, you don't have to be so serious. Let your hair down a little. This is just for fun.
I like all the suggested flies.

[Mike Connor]

Oh Mike sweetie, you don't have to be so serious. Let your hair down a little. This is just for fun.
I like all the suggested flies.

I don't have enough hair to let down any more, I lost most of it worrying about which were the best flies!

TL
MC

[Johnno]

Spur winged plover and mouse
Pukeko and red
Starling and herl
Neilson's caddis
Woodcock and hare

Those would be the ones I have the most confidence in..... Down here anyways.

[Otter]

Yeah Mike , way to serious... and I have a similar hairstyle.

Here's my top five for my river, I wouldn't go out without them.

Nymph Fly
Pupa Fly
Emerger Fly
Dun Fly
Midge Fly