Best flies for eastern freestone streams, including what time of year to use them.

[Morgan64c]

Best flies for eastern freestone streams, including what time of year to use them.

[buckhunter]

Not sure if it's the best but I'm a huge fan of the Kaufman Stimulator on small streams. Anytime of year. Terrestrials work good in the summer. Of course matching the hatch on any stream works well.

[Morgan64c]

I have a few variations of the Stimulator, and have caught a few trout but mostly use it for big Bluegill.

[allegnmtn]

I agree with buckhunter on carrying a couple of sizes Kaufman's. Egg and sucker spawn patterns and patterns like the grreen weenie are a good bet too for nymphing in most creeks.

I'm not sure where you live, matching hatches and times of year depends a lot on water and air temperature. Here in NW, Central PA, we just had big hatches of caddis, hendricksons, and grannoms. I've been doing well on caddis and stonefly nymphs too.

[Morgan64c]

I live in Kentucky and make annual trips to the Smokey mtn's and this is the first year with a fly outfit. And one of those trips is coming up soon.

[allegnmtn]

When in doubt, Google it. Go to smokeymountainflyguide.com They have a link to a hatch chart. It looks very similar to up here maybe a week or two ahead of us...It looks like cahills, march browns, sulfurs, and green drakes should be coming soon. I'm sure you can find some fishing reports online too that would give you some more specifics.

I have good luck by stopping in local fly shops. Look around, ask about fishing, buy a couple of flies (Even though I tye my own, I learn a lot from looking at other people's work), then run before they try to sell you something expensive (unless you need something expensive, then negotiate).

[themadflyfisher]

As stated above matching the hatch is best. FlyShack.com has some good hatch charts for every state. Besides the matching/hatch.
For dries, I have found black gnats, royal wulffs, royal coachmans, elk hair caddis, and stimulators seem to catch when they don't represent anything that's going on at the time.
Nymphs; Copper johns, prince nymphs, hare's ear nymphs, & scuds are all good.
Streamers; wooly buggers(olive, white, black(I tie more olive with black hackle than any others), Black ghosts, mickey finns, & muddlers are all good also.