Flies for Stillwater Fly Fishing

@anna_on_the_fly is on the water constantly. She is constantly trying new things -- new flies, new techniques, and new gear. We are grateful that she's an Ambassador for DiscountFlies. And, we're grateful that she shares her knowledge and adventures with us here in the "Fly of the Week" (or month during the "off" season) Column.

Aug 3, 2023

Spring rolled in and stayed for a while here in the West, but I sure am loving the green landscape and healthy, fat, fish! More than that I am loving fishing the Stillwater fisheries and reservoirs, they are on fire right now! With the cool summer temperatures this year, the fish haven’t been forced to move to the depths of the middle of the lake yet and trout are still cruising the shallows even in the metro lakes and reservoirs. Up at higher elevation, like Alpine Lakes, is where the real fun is though – these trout are definitely acting like their winter was 2 months longer than usual and it’s only increased the aggressiveness of their eats! With that said I am sure some people feel Stillwater can be intimidating or “boring bobber watching” but it doesn’t have to be, so with that said I want to provide you with some of my favorite techniques and flies I’ve found that make the long hikes worth it and get more fish in the net! There are so many ways to fish Stillwater, the most used techniques are dry/droppers, nymphing, streamers and stripping micro streamers and leeches under an indicator. I love all of these techniques but I am going to get into a streamer article later so I will focus on dry/droppers/nymphing and stripping smaller bugs and bait fish under an indicator but let’s start with my all-time favorite fly fishing technique hopper droppers and dry droppers! Pretty much from June to October I am always throwing a dry or hopper dropper rig, the reason for that is because trout aren’t holding deep, they are higher in the water column, and they are LOOKING UP! They know that Damsels, Grasshoppers, Caddis and a plethora of other insects are hatching and rising to the surface so why not get a chance at a good dry eat! Generally, I use the hopper/dry dropper technique on smaller bodies of water like Alpine lakes and smaller ponds.

For the dropper technique I start off tying on either an Amy’s Ant, Hippie Stomper, Parachute Madam X, or Chubby Chernobyl – but best believe if I see any signs of adult damsels then I use a Blue Damsel Adult fly, Discount Flies makes my favorite variation by far and If you haven’t witnessed a Cutthroat leaping out of the water to aggressive hammer a damsel, then I suggest you put that on the top of your list for summer!! I digress, so after choosing my dry I tie on an olive Damsel Nymph, Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ears or a Debutante Soft Hackle as my second fly because having an “emerging nymph”, like a hackle fly in the middle column has been the best success for me, even when nymphing Stillwater. From there I tie on my last fly which is almost always a Chironomid (Crystal or Jumbo Juju), or an Ice Cream Cone or for some places even a zebra midge or larger disco midge. This selection/set-up offers hungry trout all stages of the bug’s life cycles, and they are all very “buggy” flies, imitating a wide range of different aquatic insects. Leading into that, every lake has different aquatic insects and different techniques work better depending on the type of lake you are fishing so if I am on a big lake or reservoir or on a belly boat then a dry/hopper dropper isn’t the best, I would rather go with a nymph set up but I use the same flies as the dropper rig I described above only I would use a balanced leech or scud as the point fly on a nymph rig since I don’t have a dry/hopper on. Hoppers and dries are generally found more in the shallows and by the banks but that’s not to say I haven’t caught trout on a hopper on the middle of a lake it just isn’t as likely to happen as on the banks.