River Pattern Guide

Best Flies for Rock Creek

Rock Creek is one of Montana's classic freestone trout streams, flowing for roughly fifty miles through a timbered canyon east of Missoula before joining the Clark Fork River. Unlike the broad, valley...

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11 recommended patterns

Dry Fly

Stimulator

The attractor dry fly that mimics everything big on the surface.

Sizes 8–14

Dry Fly

Adams

The original Adams dry fly is the foundation of American mayfly fishing. Its mixed grizzly and brown

Sizes 12–20

Dry Fly

March Brown

The March Brown imitates Rhithrogena morrisoni, one of the first significant mayfly hatches of the s

Sizes 12–14

Nymph

Pat's Rubber Legs

Pat's Rubber Legs is a large, heavily weighted stonefly nymph pattern with rubber legs that pulse an

Sizes 4–10

Nymph

Flashback Hare's Ear

The Flashback variant adds a strip of pearl tinsel over the wing case of the classic Hare's Ear, pro

Sizes 12–18

Nymph

Squirrel Nymph

Dave Whitlock's Squirrel Nymph uses fox squirrel body hair and tail as dubbing for a buggy, all-purp

Sizes 10–16

Nymph

Sow Bug

The Sow Bug (or aquatic isopod) imitation is a flat-profiled, segmented nymph that imitates the tiny

Sizes 14–18

Terrestrial

Chernobyl Ant

The Chernobyl Ant is an oversized foam terrestrial pattern with rubber legs that creates a massive d

Sizes 6–12

Midge

Midge Larva

A simple thread-body pattern imitating the larval stage of chironomid midges. Despite its simplicity

Sizes 18–26

Nymph

Tungsten Jig Hares Ear

The classic Hares Ear profile reimagined on a modern jig hook with a heavy tungsten bead for Euro ny

Sizes #12–#18

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