When I began the process of switching from spin fishing with bait and lures to fly fishing for trout, I immediately became overwhelmed. Most of that was due to the fact that I purchased a copy of “Matching the Hatch” by Ernie Schwiebert.

When I began reading that book, and trying to digest all the different species of flies listed, I believed that I would need copies of all life stages of the various mayflies to be successful. So began a flurry of fly tying that went on for several years before I figured out that I didn’t need imitations of nymphs, duns and spinners of all the important aquatic insects to catch trout.

As part of those early years, there was the purchase of several fly boxes, a Cumberland fishing vest designed by Lee Wulff, a net, clippers, fly floatant, tippet, split shot and who knows what else. So when I went fishing, I firmly believed that I was prepared for whatever fly hatch I happened to find on any given day. I played that game in my head for several years before I started to figure out that more times than not it wasn’t the fly keeping me from catching trout. By that time, my vest was so heavy, that I would often have a headache at the end of days fishing.

As time went on, I started to learn it wasn’t necessary to exactly “match the hatch” in order to raise trout. For example, I found that I did not need quill Gordons, red quills and Hendricksons in my fly box, when the only difference in those flies is the body color. So I just tied red quills  in size 12 and 14, which closely matches those three flies. 

I also found the same with spinner patterns. Those three flies, along with March browns and gray foxes, are all perfectly matched by a Rusty Spinner dry fly—just in different sizes. Now I cary just three fly boxes, one for large dry flies, one for small dry flies and one for wet flies and nymphs. In those boxes, there are red quillss, March browns, pale evening duns, green drakes, sulphurs, olives, a few caddies, rust spinners and coffin flies. That’s all. I don’t think I have 100 flies total. 

I went through the same progression with a variety of vests over a period of 20 to 30 years. Vests have so many pockets, that I had a tendency to carry all kinds of unnecessary equipment, including extra reels, reel spools, pliers, insect nets and even a rain jacket in the back pocket.

Once I figured out that I didn’t need all the different fly patterns, I also figured out that I no longer needed a vest. Besides, in all the vests I tried, each one was so long that they got wet when I deep-waded. So I switched to a Patagonia chest pack. It’s waterproof, 12 inches in length by five inches in width by six inches high, and holds everything required for a day on the river. In that rather small pack, I easily fit one large and two small fly boxes, several spools of tippet, a bottle of fly floats, small long-nose pliers, my license, split shot and hemostats. 

While I know that most fly fishers will not adopt this philosophy to minimize the number of of flies, fly boxes and equipment that they carry, others have. The late Ed Van Put, with whom I frequently fished on the Delaware River years ago, told me that he used three flies: the Adams, royal coachman and the pheasant tail nymph. Ed caught fish with those three flies, when others caught no fish regardless of how many different patterns they had in their fly boxes and cast to feeding trout. Ed claimed that he caught more than 70 percent of his trout on the Adams. 

While I won’t go as far as Ed and limit the flies I use to three, I will say most of my trout are taken on the rusty spinner. I use that fly in sizes 12 to 16. Some years ago, I spoke to Ed about the rusty spinner to get his take on why it was so successful. He said two things: One, because it is a spent fly, it lies flat on the water so it is easier for trout to see; and two, because you have had so much success with that pattern, you have confidence in it. He went on to explain that the confidence an angler has in his or her own flies plays a significant role in whether or not they catch trout with those flies. I firmly believe what Ed had to say, to the degree that if I find trout rising steadily at dusk, I know they will rise to my rusty spinner. 

Some of the folks I fish with call me a minimalist, because I carry so little in the way of fly fishing paraphernalia. I have no problem being categorized in that way, because I’ve learned over time that I don’t need hundreds of different flies to catch trout. Plus, I no longer get the headaches associated with a heavy vest during a day’s fishing. And that’s a good thing!