River Pattern Guide

Best Flies for West Branch Penobscot River

The West Branch of the Penobscot River is the crown jewel of Maine fly fishing and one of the last great landlocked Atlantic salmon rivers in North America. Flowing from Ripogenus Dam through the wild...

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11 recommended patterns

Streamer

Woolly Bugger

If you could only fish one fly for the rest of your life.

Sizes 2–10

Nymph

San Juan Worm

Love it or hate it, it catches fish — lots of fish.

Sizes 10–16

Streamer

Sculpzilla

The sculpin slayer that big browns can't resist.

Sizes 4–10

Nymph

Prince Nymph

Doug Prince's attractor nymph combines peacock herl, brown hackle, goose biot wings and tail in a pa

Sizes 10–18

Streamer

Sex Dungeon

Kelly Galloup's Sex Dungeon is a massive, articulated streamer designed to trigger predatory aggress

Sizes 2–6

Streamer

Circus Peanut

Russ Maddin's Circus Peanut is a dual-articulated streamer with a peanut-shaped foam head that gives

Sizes 2–6

Streamer

Olive Woolly Bugger

The olive variant of the Woolly Bugger is specifically effective as a leech and damselfly nymph imit

Sizes 6–12

Streamer

Kreelex

The Kreelex is a simple but flashy baitfish pattern made primarily of metallic lateral scale materia

Sizes 6–10

Wet Fly

Picket Pin

The Picket Pin is a traditional stillwater wet fly that imitates damselfly nymphs and emergers. Its

Sizes 10–14

Wet Fly

Carey Special

The Carey Special is a Pacific Northwest stillwater staple featuring a pheasant rump hackle that cre

Sizes 8–12

Wet Fly

Woolly Worm

The ancestor of the Woolly Bugger, the Woolly Worm is a palmered chenille-and-hackle pattern that ha

Sizes 8–14