Name your one fly

Ok, karma, I was just rockin' out while building a leader, tell me about this purple haze fly. I'm just starting an interweb search. edit: wow lots or variations, parachute version or?. found it in the vice already. that thread is awesome.
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mickey rat said:
The original is a parachute. I tie a variation using a purple dyed goose biot abdomen. See Charlie Cravens Adams video.
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I tie the PH as a parachute in 12/14, as a klinkhammer, and as a nymph in 14-18. All catch fish. I have tired the UV purple, but find no difference. I don't bother with Adams anymore, but still have some in the box
 
Dry: Parachute Adams
Streamer: Wooly Bugger
Nymph: Hare's Ear

The devil is in the detail, though. I don't tie any of these the conventional way; they all have tweaks that I've painstakingly curated, over the years.

For example, a wooly bugger can imitate just about anything, depending on the proportions, colors, materials and so on.
 
Dry: Humpy
Small Dry: parachute Adams
River/stream nymph: PT with copper john bead head dropper
Lake nymph: Carey Special (variant) for dragon and damsel imitation
Streamer: bugger

About as basic as it can get....
 
If it has to be one, it’s a Clouser. If I’m parting it out over a number of categories, here are what I’ve landed on:

Attractor & Dry: Yellow Humpy
Nymph: PTN, Hare’s Ear, and variants thereof.
Anchor: Turd
Lakes: Olive Willy
Puget Sound: Squimp variants
Steelhead: Dirty Hoh
Bonefish: don’t remember the name, but this:

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Dry: Olive Comparadun.
Streamer: Olive beadhead bugger
Nymph: Pheasant Tail
Emerger: cdc emerger……or I just drown the comparadun. That fly catches fish across multiple hatches and stages!

If I could only fish one pattern for Puget Sound salt most definitely a clouser. I don’t think there is even a close second choice if I could only have one fly for for salmon and SRC.
 
If I could only fish one fly for the rest of my days....one of mine. doesn't have a name, but it's ~8" and all black, has a couple of thin chartreuse saddles going down the side, and walks the dog better than the highest end dog walker in the Pac NW.

guess I didn't read the rules....

different species...
nymph: egg pattern....it's what's for dinner.
dry: large foam ant/hopper that I used to tie.
I don't really fish emergers, so can I get another streamer? probably a craft fur baitfish pattern (like I've thrown up in the past for smallies) that can be up-sized (within reason) or downsized depending on species.
 
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Streamer- tungsten cone with either craft fur or rabbit behind (sculpin or minner)
Big and small dry- Stimulator and a Purple haze
Nymphs- flashback CDC bubble mayfly thing and a tungsten bead stonefly
Emergers- PT softhackle, sparkle pupa
Steelhead- Green butt, lavender body, black marabou w/ blue flash
And a SJW, and a bead for good measure.

I'd likely combust if I had to pick one!
 
Parachute Adams, black balanced leech, soft hackle bead head Hare's Ear...allergic to emergers
tidewater Kings - sparse (as in count the hairs) Rainbow Clousers, and Comets in various colors/sizes
 
Dry - got be the elk hair caddis. It will catch fish itself as a dry, it will catch fish as it swings at the end of a drift, or when stripped in underwater on a lake, will float a decent sized nymph (often pulling it lower on the water with a nymph will make it catch more fish as a dry), it’s my favorite dry/dropper dry.

Nymph - probably a flashback pheasant tail in size 16 on a river.

Lakes - favorite is indicator fishing with something on top and a bloodworm on the bottom. For sinking line work my favorite is a damsel.

Steelhead - if I have to catch a fish, it would be a kilowatt swung on a Skagit line with some T-11. For pure enjoyment it would be a size 6 or 8 purple peril swung on my 14 ft 5 weight ACR using my Ballistic Vector line standing knee deep in the run, 45 degrees outside, no wind, overcast sky. God I miss having steelhead to fish for.
 
Mike Ediger said:
I know my answer will be incredibly boring, and it isn't a sexy fly, but my "one" would be a black bunny leech, maybe size 8 or 10. Not incredibly large. Just wrap on some lead, tie in the tail, wrap up the shank, and call it good. It is like a 2 minute fly, and still my most deadly. I have caught all species of trout in still- and moving water: bows, lahontan cutts, brookies, westslope cutts, bulls, and browns. Not sure if it is the most productive because it just is, or because I have the most confidence in it so I fish it the most often, but for trout, I can confidently say it has been my most productive fly in almost any setting.
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I just tied this and man, for a one ingredient quick tie it is a sexy streamer!
 
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