Terrestrials- what we learned back in “Kid’s High”
Living in Toledo, Ohio in the Mid Western part of the United States does not afford one the luxury of gentle flowing, clear, cold habitat for trout. In fact, it is quite a drive to find truly “Blue Ribbon” caliber fly-fishing water….about 4 to 5 hours in any direction! No wonder I could hardly tell the difference between a mayfly and a mosquito for the first years of my fly-fishing life. Learning to tie flies and fly-fish without modern day books, videos, tools and materials was challenging enough, not to mention, no formal background in “bugs”. Sorry, I lied. I did go to “Kid’s High”- and could spot a grasshopper, ant, dragonfly, beetle, bee or cricket from a mile away.
I asked Dad if bluegills and bass would eat these creatures and he nodded without hesitation. I wish I still had my first imitations to share with you- they certainly were rugged. Funny part about it, though, is they always caught fish. Oversized wing, tailing loop on the back cast, too big of a knot- it never mattered and resulted in an art and sport that I enjoy as much today as I did when I was a kid.
Of course it is much different today. We tie with sophisticated surgeon precise tools, modern materials dominated by synthetics, natural materials created by genetics, and fly pattern instructions that look like battleship building formulas. What has not changed, however, are those insects that are born and spend their immature and mature life stages on land that we studied back in “Kid’s High” called TERRESTRIALS.
I am much older now and my fly-fishing has gravitated towards cold-water species. By the way, I am still not a “bug” expert, but I know enough to realize Terrestrials are a very important food source to both warm water fish and cold-water species. I tie and carry and army of terrestrial patterns because I find them on every stream that I fish. Of course there are thousands of different terrestrial insects, many geographically domiciled, but I carry the most common: Ants, Beetles, Grasshoppers, Crickets and Lady Bugs. Oh, I carry Damsel and Dragonflies also, which are not Terrestrials by definition, but just as deadly when fly-fishing.
The following fly patterns are some of my favorites and are among some of our best selling Fly-Kit patterns: Click the link on each picture to jump to our Products page for more info.
