Salomone: Five flatwater flies

Off-colored water can make early-season angling difficult. Fly fishers with skills beyond the swift water know that looking to lakes, ponds and reservoirs can keep you in the game. But fly choices can puzzle anglers lacking stillwater fly-fishing experience. Here are five flat water flies to increase your chance of success.

Chironomids are insects that thrive in stillwaters. The large midges present an enticing food source, especially in the pupae stage. Chironomid nymphs are extremely vulnerable when emerging. A bright red larva represents the earliest stage of this insect that trout exploit regularly. Red or black are popular colors for imitating the pupae. A bright white bead is a characteristic that sets chironomids apart from other nymphs.

Stillwater anglers fish chironomids as deep as 25 feet. Takes can be hard to discern at depths so trust your strike indicator and set at the most subtle movement. Swimming a chironomid can result in a grabbing take from trout that feels like a short tug. Be prepared or you will miss the bite.

Wooly buggers — with weight or unweighted — hold high praise in stillwaters. Conehead or beadhead wooly buggers get down deep where trout use ambush techniques to capture prey. Black or olive color holds the best shape for trout to recognize and intercept at depth.

Wooly buggers work in weedy areas, rock bottom locations or stripped in open water. Trout don’t just hit a wooly bugger. They kill it. The power in a wooly bugger strike is meant to stun or kill the prey. Trout do not like anything struggling in their gullet. Dangerous food sources such as crayfish are a prime example of a target that can grab ahold of sensitive gill filaments when eaten causing harm. Trout do not allow this to happen. As a result wooly buggers are hit with authority.

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Leeches swim with an enticing action that trout can not ignore. The subtle movement through the water is noticeable from a distance, drawing inquisitive trout in close. Rarely does an interested trout refuse the seductive action from a squirreltail leech. Brown, olive or burgundy colors mimic the tempting morsels well. And like wooly buggers, leeches are hit with force.

A giant Parachute Madame X, or PMX, creates a broad silhouette on the surface even trout 10-feet deep can discern. This is a fly that represents more than a mouthful offering. Calm water is ideal. Surface chop diminishes the effectiveness of large mayflies on stillwaters.

This is an effective dry-dropper situation for covering two levels of the water column. However, a heavy weighted nymph will pull the fly under the surface. When presenting a dry dropper rig, think about emerging nymphs trying to reach the surface level to transition into an adult. Those emerger nymphs are light, meant to be fished shallow and trigger sub-surface bites regularly. Cruising trout will often rise to inspect a large surface fly only to eat the emerger or dropper after a dry fly refusal.

Anglers often overlook scuds; there is an unknown factor that places them in an unused corner of a fly box. But basic knowledge about scuds will translate to swift water success. Fly fishing in the top of the Grand Canyon out of Lees Ferry is one example where scuds rule in a swift water situation. The small crustaceans entice trout to eat whether the scud is alive or dead. And at Lees Ferry it is the dead scuds that trout eat.

Dead scuds have a distinct orange tinge of color. Alive scuds are mainly green in appearance. Dead scuds are easy pickings. Alive scuds can swim with surprising speed making them more difficult for trout to eat but still a tasty choice.

Weedlines are a key component to stillwater fly fishing with scuds. These small critters live in weeds. Trout will cruise along the tops of weedlines and employ sudden bursts of speed to intercept any scud that ventures too far from the security of the weed growth. Stripping a scud with an intentional pace results in trout slamming the small bug with a forceful take. Dead scuds don’t swim. Instead, a slow drifted presentation produces soft takes from trout feeding on the dead.

These five flies make for a productive stillwaters fishing experience. Anglers who shy away from lakes and reservoirs are missing out on some stellar fly-fishing opportunities.