River Pattern Guide

Best Flies for Green River

The Green River is one of the great fly fishing rivers of the American West — a 730-mile journey from its headwaters in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming to its confluence with the Colorado River in...

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11 recommended patterns

Nymph

Hare's Ear Nymph

Buggy, messy, and irresistible to every trout in the river.

Sizes 10–18

Nymph

Copper John

John Barr's heavy metal attractor — built to sink and designed to shine.

Sizes 12–18

Dry Fly

Pale Morning Dun

The PMD pattern imitates one of the West's most important hatches — Ephemerella infrequens and E. in

Sizes 14–18

Dry Fly

Henry's Fork Hopper

Mike Lawson's Henry's Fork Hopper is the standard foam-body grasshopper pattern for slick water. Unl

Sizes 8–12

Dry Fly

Goddard Caddis

John Goddard and Cliff Henry's spun deer hair caddis is the most buoyant caddis imitation ever conce

Sizes 10–16

Streamer

Muddler Minnow

Don Gapen's Muddler Minnow is one of fly fishing's most versatile patterns. Its spun deer hair head

Sizes 4–10

Emerger

BWO Loop Wing Emerger

A CDC loop wing emerger specifically tied to match Blue-Winged Olives. The looped CDC creates a visi

Sizes 18–22

Terrestrial

Foam Ant

The Foam Ant creates the distinct two-hump silhouette of a real ant using closed-cell foam segments.

Sizes 14–20

Terrestrial

Flying Ant

The Flying Ant pattern includes CDC or hackle-tip wings that distinguish it from standard ant patter

Sizes 14–18

Emerger

Film Critic

A low-profile emerger that sits right in the surface film, imitating a mayfly struggling to break fr

Sizes #16–#22

Wet Fly

Black Spider

W.C. Stewart popularized this minimalist spider pattern in the 1850s, and it remains one of the most

Sizes #12–#18