Trout fishing entails lots of different aspects about fish. Perhaps the most important is deciding which fly to use. There are 3 basic types of trout fishing flies.

1. Dry Flies

Dry flies give you the advantage of being able to easily read the surface currents. You will know exactly where your fly is and whether or not it is working as you want it to.

Dry flies imitate various aquatic insects in their adult stage. They are made to imitate mayflies, caddis flies, stoneflies, and midge flies. These all have different configurations with and without wings and in various sizes.

In order to choose the best dry fly, you will need to determine what type of insect the trout are feeding on. Then, match your fly as closely as possible. One rule of thumb is that if you don't have a fly that matches well, then choose one just a little smaller. Anything larger will likely scare the trout.

2. Wet Flies

Wet flies are made to resemble drowned, adult insects. They are usually weighted.

Wet flies have the advantage of making your fly fishing simple and effortless. With less casting than with dry flies, you can quickly cover more water. Wet flies are also good to use in fast broken currents that would drown any dry fly.

Some examples of wet flies would be hair wings, feather wings, and both hackle flies and palmer hacle flies. The woolly worm, a fat-bodied hackle, is a favorite when fishing in the big rivers out west. This has a hackle along the entire length of the fly.

A while back, wet flies were more popular than they are today. If a fisherman is looking for a sunken fly, he is more likely to choose a nymph.

3. Nymphs

The advantage of tying on a nymph is that it raises the odds for the fly fisherman. Nymphs copy the immature forms of aquatic insects rather than the adult form as we found in the dry fly. These include mayflies, caddis flies, damselflies, midge flies as well as stone flies.

Nymphs mimic insects in their immature form. They should always be present and the trout should always be feeding on them. No matter how cold or warm the water, no matter how high or low the stream, the insects that nymphs resemble are always present.

Nymphs can be weighted, just like wet flies.