Patterns - All the great fly patterns - The best dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, streamers - Material lists and tying instructions - Global FlyFisher

This section currently has 309 articles

All the great fly patterns

The best dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, streamers - Material lists and tying instructions

Fly tying videos

Moto's Minnow Streamer

Cinnamon & Gold Traditional Wet Fly

Furimsky's Fluttering Foam Caddis

Pheasant Tail Midge Pupa

B-H (Bend Hook) Midge Emerger

Rainbow Czech Nymph

Tying the Oddball Quill Gordon with Johnny Utah

How to submit a pattern to GFF

Contribute: Occasionally visitors ask whether they can contribute a fly pattern to this site, and the answer is a clear and loud YES!
Read how to do it here

Martin's Mundane Sand Eel

Mundane: Sand eels are very common in most waters around the world. This is a very simple flatwing style sand eel that can be tied easily with very few, common materials, and make a great imitaion that is easy to cast on a light rod.
Read more here

Skip to "Martin's Mundane Fly Project"

Martin's Mundane Fly Project

Vow: This is the Mundane Fly Manifesto: Few and cheap materials, easy to find in the shops. Simple tying methods. Mundane flies. The whole idea is to make it simple and efficient to tie flies that work.
Read Martin's Mundane Manifesto here.

More about "Steelhead Beetle"

Steelhead Beetle

Broom fly: While looking at steelhead flies with a BC guide, one fly in particular stood out: a somewhat ugly contraption with a deer hair wing and not least an "overhanging" head, in other words tied so that the hook eye was under the fly and not in front.
Meet the Steelhead Beetle

Click to see "Grantham's Sedge"

Grantham's Sedge

Steelhead fly: Grantham Sedge was originally designed by Ron Grantham in 1993. It is a unique solution to creating a fly which produces a substantial wake without having to be bulky or riffle hitched. Ron Grantham writes "When used with a floating fly line this unsinkable fly will stay on the surface as long as it is moving
Read about it here

Read more on "The Killer Mantis"

The Killer Mantis

Epoxy: Who else than epoxy wizard (and madman) Bob Kenly would take on tying... eh, building... eh, constructing a Mantis Shrimp as a fly? Follow the project this article where you can read Bob's story about the fly and see pictures of the process and the finished fly.
Join in here

Find "Martin's Mundane Zonker Worm" here

Martin's Mundane Zonker Worm

Zonker: For many saltwater anglers the term "worm hatch" has a magical ring to it. When the polychaete worms swim freely to spawn, the fish usually go berserk, be it trout, stripers, tarpon or a number of other species. As one writer puts it: It's like yelling "free lunch" to a high school football team.
Learn to tie a simple worm here

Skip to "HKA Sunray/Bismo"

HKA Sunray/Bismo

Tube fly: This fly is without doubt one of the best catching flies on the bigger rivers in Iceland! It was originated by Danish Henrik Kassow Andersen. Salmon guide Nils Jorgensen from Iceland shows you how to tie it.
See step by step pictures here.

"Jim Warner Swap" is found here

Jim Warner Swap

Streamers: Jim Warner has been one of the most influential fly tyers in New England, especially for those who spend their time trolling and fishing streamers in the many lakes and ponds of the region. The gang of the streamers@ list recently had a swap of his great fly patterns.
Click here to see the results.

Skip to "Carrie Challenge II"

Carrie Challenge II

Streamers: Back in 2002 a bunch of guys on the streamers@ mailing list decided to tie some flies "in the hand" without the benefit of a vise. This year a new crop took up the challenge with a different fly - Carrie's Favorite - and tackled the Look Ma, No Vise challange.
Click here to see the results.

Go to Bastard Crab

Bastard Crab
Yet another impressionistic crab pattern that includes materials providing a lot of movement. This an Aaron Adams pattern that is often eaten as it drops to the bottom.

Go to Meko Special

Meko Special
Omeko Glinton created the Meko Special in an attempt to come up with a single fly that you can fish over any color bottom so you don't have to waste time changing flies as you move from flat to flat.

Go to The CDC & Elk family

The CDC & Elk family
Hans Weilenmann's CDC & Elk is a fly as good as they come. Still a lot of people - including Hans himself and the author - have made variations. This article covers a whole bunch of CDC & Elk variations.

Go to The Terrible Muddler

The Terrible Muddler
This is the lazy man's muddler, the sloppy tier's muddler, the beginner's muddler. It's actually quite close in style to some of the first Muddler Minnows tied by Don Gapen back in the 30's.

Go to Ken's Cuteling

Ken's Cuteling
A small, soft baitfish imitation that will do a very good job standing in for a sculpin, but can be adapted to look like almost any small fish. Learn to tie it here using easily available materials -

Go to The Killer Shrimp

The Killer Shrimp
The Killer Shrimp hardly looks like anything. It's gray and translucent, sparsely dressed and inconspicuous. But it catches fish. It's a great fly for those bright and calm days where sea trout seem to be unwilling to take any fly.

All articles from this section...

Tie Better
·How to submit a pattern to GFF
·Martin's Mundane Fly Project
·Oatman's Silver Darter
·The Killer Mantis
·Everyday Fly Tying Tips
·Major Traherne's flies
·Tying with CDC
·The CDC & Elk family
·DIY brushes and combs
·The Bloody Zonker
More...
Fish Better
·Fish safely
·How to fish with more than one fly
·The only knot
·Capt. Mel's Tube Knot
·The Fish & The Fly Q&A
·Stepping into the Stream Q&A
·The bag trick
·A Backyard in Nowhere Q&A
·When lightning strikes
·Don't wade, you idiot!
More...
Gallery
·Fishy photographer: Mark Lance
·Fishy photographer: Jim Klug
·Fly fishing photographers
·AD Maddox
·Pretty in pink
·Autumn Gallery
·Close to the surface
·Robin Armstrong
·Craig Bertram Smith
·Spring 2011
More...

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