Fins and Feathers Five Favorite Gallatin River Summer Time Flies

Posted by:

Date: 01/01/2025

Being a little slower the last afternoon or so, we decided to do a little survey with we employees and our customers to find the five favorite Summertime flies for the Gallatin River. The first thing I realized is five favorites quickly needed to be at least six favorites. I will disclose, I didn't quite have the math skills to put the top six in any particular order. These were just the top six.

We'll start with the Purple Chubby. This flie will produce in a variety of sizes, depending on if the fish are eating it for a Stonefly, Moth, Carpenter Ant, Hopper, Whatever. It floats well, looks like a box of kleenex floating around and just works.

Next we'll go to the Purple Para Wulff. We get a lot of cool Mayfly hatches in the Gallatin and even though none of them are purple to my knowledge, it doesn't seem to matter. They like purple. Have this pattern in a variety of sizes.

The last dry on the list is a Parachute Ant. Every fish is programed to eat an Ant. They have a ton of protein and come in a variety of sizes and colors. Some winged some not. Even the pickiest of fish will take a crack at these baby's.

The first Nymph on the list is the trusty Prince Nymph. This pattern speaks for it self.

Another great must have Nymph is the Tungsten Yellow Sally Nymph. The Gallatin is a Stonefly river. This pattern just looks like food. The tungsten gets it deep quickly, the rubber legs and ostrich moves great in the water.

Last but certainly not least is the Gold Lightning Bug. For a while now, we've heard the fish in the Gallatin have gotten light sensitive durring the day. Sometimes they just want something small and flashy and under water.

Obviously these are not the only flies that work on the Gallatin. There are several that work as well or even better in certain circumstances, but if you aren't sure whats going on, nothing is rising, you left town before the shop opened, whatever, these flies are a great place to start and you should feel confident throwing any of these around on almost any given day durring the Summer months.