Only one fly for December

Its hard to narrow your fly selection to one fly during any season. I will narrow it down to eight ;D

If the river that you are going to fish is on the high and muddy side, I would have eggs and Juan Worms.

For similar conditions on freestone streams or the Farmington, I would thrown a size 8 golden stonefly in there.

For rivers that are low and clear, I would be using a caddis larvae (there are tons of these on the rocks in the winter)
I would also use midges of various colors, with the two most important colors being red and black.

Also, on the rivers in our area that have limestone influence and the correct ph, scuds and sow bugs are a must have. Remember to size these flies up appropriately to the water level. Higher water larger flies, When the water is lower use smaller flies.

Later in the winter as we get closer to the spring, make sure to start using nymphs that are representative of the hatches that are going to take place. BWO nymphs and brown mayfly nymphs are great producers in the late winter.

Sorry guys, I could not narrow it down to one fly because of the many different types of rivers that I fish.

For the Housy, I'd have to decide between eggs or golden stones. I guess I'd end up going with the eggs.

For the Farmington, definitely midges.

Good thing Aaron wouldn't narrow it down, the more info the better!

Steve

I still say sculpins...

Last night:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...K73/brown2.jpg

sculpins, sculpins, sculpins!!!

I'd have to go with a stonefly for any river all winter. It will catch steelhead and trout and will be present and somewhat active in most rivers.

Good discussion guys.

Aaron, you cheated and named 8, bad Aaron. Spankies for you. Wait, that probaly wouldn't be punishment for you...

Slo- no particular stream, just trout streams in general. I think everyone is going to answer according to the places they fish regularly. You can specify a stream or streams if you want.

If I was going to "cheat" like Aaron and name more than one, I'd add 3 more to my original group of 5 (that I cut down to one):
-a Hare's Ear (prob about a #16, but bigger or smaller according to the water conditions & the food base in the specific stream)
-a SJ Worm (fl. pink, red, worm brown, 2-tone, fl. orange)
-an all purpose/generic dark brown mayfly nymph (#14-18, whatever your favorite is, specific pattern is not critical- think size/color/presentation). Could imitate all sorts of mayflies as well as smaller, darker stones.

OK, A size 14 golden stone.

this is a hard one ! I like sculpin patterns ,but on a nice day I head for size 22 griff knats they fool them everytime ! And almost every place Ive fished ! If I see a big boy though I got to wait and see if he is feeding on the surface for that otherwise ,got to go woith the sculpin or a dark stonefly nymph,cause they are about to hatch in the winter! Oh a back up top water is a stimulator ,ahhhh there are to many, you just cant have one thats like trying to decide eggs or bacon or cereal!

Slo-
Do you simply your Golden Stones when you go to smaller sizes such as the #14 you mention?

Glad you included the worm, you know it's the best.

Juice, I wonder what Freud would have said about your worm fixation....