Best flies for stocked trout? Or should I stick with spinning gear.

[tlkntrout09]

Best flies for stocked trout? Or should I stick with spinning gear.

[fezzant]

Stocked trout will hit the same flies as wild trout. If they have been recently stocked and have not gotten over their hatchery stupidity, they will hit anything at all. Match the hatch as you would any other trout. Good places to start would be caddis or mayfly imitations, grasshoppers, or a woolly bugger.

[fezzant]

If you want a more specific answer, post with the location you plan on fishing. Appropriate flys can vary quite a bit from one region to another, and sometimes from one drainage to another even in the same area.

[tlkntrout09]

Southwest va. Small streams, smallish rivers

[tlkntrout09]

We also have "delayed harvest" stocked but catch and release only

[themadflyfisher]

fezzant said it. Freshly stocked trout will hit pretty much anything. After a little while in the stream they can wise up quite a bit.
Stocked trout are hungry and curious and like to chase things, so throwing streamers is always a good idea. After they wise up, matching the hatch is the way to go especially in the early spring through summer when all sorts of natural food is going on. Trout will key in on that real quick.

[themadflyfisher]

Also, A good way to tell when the fish have started to "wise up". They quit running toward the splash of the fly or lure, instead they run from it. Stocked trout are used to the splash of something hitting the water as food(pellets from the hatchery) That's when it's time to fish them like the fish they are. After they get a taste of a fisherman especially in a catch and release area they get scared quick. Going small will usually out fish big flies. Local shops and a quick google search can give you an idea of what's going on hatch wise in your area.

[Wolven Kinde]

small-medium(10s-14s) brown or black nymphs work very well on the planted fish here...something to imitate scuds which are common staple in the freestone streams that should be similar to what you have. For dries I'd use size 12-18 mosquito or similar pattern to imitate the mayflies adequately enough. I also use a brown body with black hackle(or vice-versa) wet fly/fluffy streamer as well that I think may imitate a damsel flie or drowned moth when dead drifted or as a minnow or water beetle when stripping and swinging cross-current. The areas I fish with these are heavily pressured with bait and spinner fisherman as well as a couple traditional fly fishers...I do well even when following another fisherman through the same stretch.

[Schultzii4]

My favorite go-to is a medium sized olive wooly bugger. Unless they're biting at te surface, then I get out a small elk hair caddis.

[TigranMetz]

I've had my best luck with either flashy attractors or medium to large Pheasant Tails.

[Solitario Lupo]

You can use your spinning gear with flies. Most times a small split will work. If extra weight is needed a small bobbin will work.