Egg Fly
The egg fly imitates the roe that spills through rivers every spawning season - the single richest food item a fish ever drifts past, rendered in a puff of yarn.
When salmon, trout or suckers spawn, loose eggs tumble downstream and every fish below the beds queues for the caviar - a genuine ecological event, not a gimmick. A yarn Glo Bug drifted (ethically - below the spawners, never at them) through that buffet is simply matching the hatch at its most caloric.
What it imitates
A single drifting fish egg - salmon, trout, steelhead or sucker roe by season and color.
When & where it wins
Behind (downstream of) active spawning periods: fall browns/salmon, spring rainbows/suckers, the whole Great-Lakes and Alaska calendars. Also, oddly, mid-winter anywhere.
How to fish it
Dead-drift at egg-level (near bottom) through runs BELOW spawning gravel - never target fish on beds; work the queue downstream that's eating the drift.
Sizes & variants
10-16; colors from hot orange (fresh) through washed-out peach ('dead egg' - often better); beads-and-yarn debates rage regionally - know local rules.
Tying notes
Yarn cinched and trimmed round - or bought by the dozen; done either way in seconds.
Common mistakes
Fishing ON the redds (don't - ethics and the future of the fishery), wrong egg color for the phase, and skipping washed-out shades that pressured egg-eaters prefer.