Flies you've taken OUT of your rotation.

[clarkman]

I'll start....this one got perhaps a half dozen casts...out. Should I give it another chance? Nope, it's out. Just doesn't swim like it should. I'll probably dissect and figure out why, but it's freakin' OUT.



Another recent tie almost made the list too, but taking the rattle off solved every problem I was having with it (guess it DOES pay to attach rattles via rubber grommet). Oddly enough, my other fly which was tied nearly identical (well, obviously not cause you see where this is going) with a rattle swam beautifully.

 

[Pink Nighty]

 

[clarkman]

View attachment 107297

exactly!!!!

 

[clarkman]

it's ok, nobody's perfect...I've got a few more relatively recent flies that didn't do exactly what I wanted (then again my 2 all bucktail flies I tied up recently performed better than I thought they would.)....but, that one above was just dead. I dunno how else to explain it! I suspect it has to do with balance, which seemed fine, but with the counter balanced front end, I think I need a little more length on the back end.

 

[RCF]

In the last 50 years of tying so many have been rotated out that I have lost count. Lately size 18 and smaller are being rotated out. If I can't see them they are gone...

 

[Zak]

I have given up on quill Gordons, wet or dry. Never caught a trout on one so I don't tie or fish them anymore.

 

[Dragon Mo]

Oh hell... Way too many, way too many. Every time I get this cockeyed notion in my head that I'm somehow gifted in fooling the wily trout and decide to create a new fly to slay and fillet the viscous fishes reality rears her nay saying head and bites me in the nether regions. Yougcth! Don't even remind me of the Chubby Chuckar. On its debut at Crane Prairie it only lasted a dozen casts but left a nasty dent in the back of my head, then it got ro-tated!
In my experience tho I've found that almost all flies will catch fish. They go out of the rotation whenever I find a shiny new bauble that catches my fancy. However... the oldies are still golden and I find myself often returning to them. Except for the Chubby Chuckar...

 

[Rob Allen]

All trout nymphs. I just do all my trout fishing around hatches. My catch rates have gone up dramatically. I just don't do any searching anymore.

 

[Brute]

All of the very first flies I tied…

 

[Buzzy]

Oh hell... Way too many, way too many. Every time I get this cockeyed notion in my head that I'm somehow gifted in fooling the wily trout and decide to create a new fly to slay and fillet the viscous fishes reality rears her nay saying head and bites me in the nether regions. Yougcth! Don't even remind me of the Chubby Chuckar. On its debut at Crane Prairie it only lasted a dozen casts but left a nasty dent in the back of my head, then it got ro-tated!
In my experience tho I've found that almost all flies will catch fish. They go out of the rotation whenever I find a shiny new bauble that catches my fancy. However... the oldies are still golden and I find myself often returning to them. Except for the Chubby Chuckar...

Well stated! At least once a year I try to organize my fly boxes which includes moving midges back to the midge box, woolly buggers back to the bugger box, etc. But more often it means I look in the boxes and wonder "Where did I get this idea? When did I fish it last? Will I fish it EVER?" I pulled probably 60 plus out of "rotation" (wrong word, out of the boxes) a few weeks ago. Tossed a dozen into the garbage and stuck the rest on a piece of foam and may donate them to someone (anonymously). One does come to mind: The Guaranteed - I fished the heck out of the Canadian pattern, never had a strike, but it's a nice looking streamer; this one is just out of rotation.

 

[Billy]

All my flies work

 

[SurfnFish]

dozens that were never used...back in the days when we wandered throughout the west on fly fishing vacations, wife and I would pull into a new to us fishery, go to the local fly shop, pick up some flies as the ticket to ask where and when, first fly that worked stayed tied on while the others never left the box.
My son who now has a second home by us has gotten interested in fly fishing again, gave him a filled fly box of dries last year.
"Dad, what's the name of these flies?"
"Hell if I know, son"

 

[Eastside]

I’m narrowing down the number of patterns in my boxes to ones that I reach for often. Some have been tossed. Usually there is a fly I haven’t used for a while that I will reach for and it works. Sometimes, an old patter that I have tied for years is improved when I see different ways of tying it, for example the Clark’s Stone in different sizes and colors. My annual donation to the Deschutes River Alliance this year was a box of different sizes and colors of that fly. On this website and especially this thread thread, I have learned a number of great patterns that have helped my success.

 

[Tom Butler]

I've mentioned this before, but I've pretty much given up on Prince and PT nymphs. I know others swear by them. I don't know if it's my ties, the fish around here, or what, but something else is always better.

 

[Buzzy]

I’m narrowing down the number of patterns in my boxes to ones that I reach for often. Some have been tossed. Usually there is a fly I haven’t used for a while that I will reach for and it works. Sometimes, an old patter that I have tied for years is improved when I see different ways of tying it, for example the Clark’s Stone in different sizes and colors. My annual donation to the Deschutes River Alliance this year was a box of different sizes and colors of that fly. On this website and especially this thread thread, I have learned a number of great patterns that have helped my success.

Last fall I was kicking around a local lake, I'd been indicator fishing with a 20' leader. I saw some fish working along the tules in SKINNY water so I clipped off the jig, pulled off my Seegercator™ and knotted on a hare's ear. It worked really well, the long leader trick has paid off numerous times. The old "hare's ear" (and this was an old one) .

 

[Dustin Chromers]

I'll start....this one got perhaps a half dozen casts...out. Should I give it another chance? Nope, it's out. Just doesn't swim like it should. I'll probably dissect and figure out why, but it's freakin' OUT.

View attachment 107274

Another recent tie almost made the list too, but taking the rattle off solved every problem I was having with it (guess it DOES pay to attach rattles via rubber grommet). Oddly enough, my other fly which was tied nearly identical (well, obviously not cause you see where this is going) with a rattle swam beautifully.

I will pull all musky and steelhead flies that don't swim right. Pull one way, out. Spin, out. Swim on its side, out. Life is too short and fishing time too valuable to deal with a fly you simply don't believe in

 

[Stonedfish]

I don’t fish trout much anymore, but patterns I used to use a lot like hares ear, zug bugs and AP’s seem to fall out of favor.
I probably have about a thousand clouser minnows at my place, many of which have never seen the water yet I continue to tie more.
SF

 

[Billy]

All my flies workView attachment 107337

In all seriousness I am very much a stickler for a perfect pop with my bass poppers. It's a hollow glunk sound I'm after.

 

[Mossback]

I don’t fish trout much anymore, but patterns I used to use a lot like hares ear, zug bugs and AP’s seem to fall out of favor.
I probably have about a thousand clouser minnows at my place, many of which have never seen the water yet I continue to tie more.
SF

They do fall out of favor...with fisherman, but not fish it seems.
Fished a spot on the Middle Fork a few years ago that I used to have a cabin on 30 years back and all the same stuff worked just fine, but I was told by some very well appointed fishers that what I needed was 'something from like, this century dude'
My soft hackles were from a century or more prior to the one they were talking about.
I have more Spey Flys than I will ever fish, but have one in the vise right now.

 

[clarkman]

I will pull all musky and steelhead flies that don't swim right. Pull one way, out. Spin, out. Swim on its side, out. Life is too short and fishing time too valuable to deal with a fly you simply don't believe in

Exactly! It doesn't take long to figure out either!