March!

Ahhhh, lovely! The sun remains on the horizon for a little longer now, and appears again a little earlier the next day. March is here. It's panick time if you tie your own flies and have been a little lazy over the winter. I have about 30 patterns that I use all season, and I like to start with about 10 of each one...to be safe. Sure, throughout the year you'll be tying flies as hatches occur and you somehow misplace all of the inventory you tied in the off season. But, when you hit the water for the first of the hatches of each species, you probably want to be prepared for whatever the bugs may throw at you at any given time. Fly fishing in Ontario can get quite technical when it comes to 'matching the hatch' due to our diverse population of Mayflies, Caddis flies, dragon flies, etc. This is why I have about 30 patterns that I like to make sure I am well stocked with. Some species may be present on one stream, but not on another. Many species will be present in all systems, and thus you'll go through many more of those patterns than others.

Some of the patterns I keep myself well stocked on for fly fishing in Ontario are:

Dry Flies:
Blue Winged Olive #18-24
Hendrickson #12-16
Grey Fox #12-16
Pale Evening Dun #12-16
Hexagenia #6-10
Grey Drake #12-16
Green Drake #12-16
Brown Drake #12-16
Yellow Stone #8
Black Caddis #14-16
Tan Caddis #14-16
Green Caddis #14-16
Trico #20-26

Nymphs:
Small Stone #10
Large Stone #6-8
Caddis #10-16
Shell Back Caddis #10-16
March Brown #10-16
Maggot #12
Northern Casemaker #10-16
Hexagenia #6-10
Spring Wiggler #10
Parasol Emerger #12

A great place to find recipes is Fish Finder ~ Ontario Fly Fishing.