This post is going to be about fly patterns that I like to imitate different terrestrials. A post, The When and Where of Fishing Terrestrial Flies, covers a lot of the times and places I like to fish different terrestrial patterns. And some of the earlier Project Terrestrial posts have a number of fly patterns and my thoughts and experiences with different terrestrials and patterns used to imitate them, both with and without foam. The goals of this post are to summarize much of that information in one place and to provide a bunch of fly patterns and links.
Project Terrestrial Installments
Part 7 - Seasons of the Terrestrial "Bugs" - a terrestrial fly box (this post)
My general thoughts on terrestrial dry fly patterns are that I like patterns that are visible, that float well - but not too well, and, unlike some, I have no issues with fishing foam flies. In fact, I would say that I fish foam terrestrials most of the time. I will provide some patterns that I like for each type of terrestrial and a few links to local fly shops where you can buy flies.
General Attractor Patterns
There are a number of attractor patterns that do not look like a specific terrestrial, rather they just look like food. The many different "Chernobyl" patterns are great examples of this. A "Chernobyl Ant" certainly looks like no ant I have ever seen - hence the Chernobyl name - but it works. Andrew Grillos' Hippie Stomper is another attractor that looks beetle-ish but there are certainly more accurate beetle imitations. And I am playing around with a fly - Dr. J's X-legs - that I wanted to be an in-the-film offering for when fishes were not committing to larger hoppers or other offerings.
The Driftless Angler sells what they call "Training Wheels", a fly that is a Chubby Chernobyl variation. And it is the near perfect dry fly for a dry and dropper system because it will support any beaded monstrosity sunk below it. There are about a zillion ways to tie "Chernobyl" flies - the video below is a rather standard way to do so.
There are a number of different ways to "scale down" the Chubby Chernobyl for times when you don't want to present something so large. The Skater Tot is another Driftless Angler offering but if you're into tying your own, there are so many things you can do with a bit of foam and whatever else you want to add to the fly. The Amish Go Kart is another option for a buggy looking smaller terrestrial pattern. On the non-foam side, flies like stimulators - particularly the rubber legged version, Royal Wulff and Trudes, and other standard attractors.
Grasshoppers
Like many anglers, grasshopper imitations are about my favorite thing to fish because the "eats" are so much fun. Trout rarely sip hoppers, instead they tend to smash them with reckless abandon. As I have written before, the two things I think most anglers do wrong when fishing grasshopper flies are that they fish flies that are too large and fishing in places where no self-respecting grasshopper would ever live. When I am fishing grasshopper imitations, I want hoppers to be moving in front of me at nearly ever step I take to get to the stream, then I know the chances of a good day are quite high.
I am rather agnostic about fly patterns to imitate grasshoppers. There are hundreds of variations and most all of them work. What I am looking for in a hopper imitation is that it is on a hook with a significant hook gape, it is fairly substantial so that it creates a decent "plop" when it lands on the water (when I want it to), and that the fly is pretty durable. Visibility is rarely an issue with a fly of this size but an indicator of some sort is an advantage and I want the legs to be quite visible and "active" so I prefer rubber over natural materials.
Most of the time, I tie on a Morrish Hopper which I have probably tied myself using the foam cutters from River Road Creations. I still buy some from the Driftless Angler once in a while but this is certainly one of the places where fly tying can save you some money. And the Morrish Hopper is a bit of an "arts and crafts" project and they are rather fun and (somewhat) easy to tie. Increasingly, I am tying them on "Klinkhammer" style hooks because I think I am getting more hook-ups with that hook. Nymph hooks are another good choice because they create a little better "plop" and they help negate the buoyancy of all that foam (grasshoppers don't float that high on the water).
There are tons of other options to imitate grasshoppers and, as I wrote above, I'm not a big believer that pattern matters. That said, I do like to carry a few different patterns - some foam like Ben's Ungamunga Hopper or one of the other foam creations at the Driftless Angler - and others that are not made of foam like those I list in the pattern about "The Classics". The DA, of course, sells a few non-foam patterns like the Spring Creek Hopper and others that may not be offered online. There are a ton of options for non-foam hoppers including the Letort Hopper, Dave's Hopper, Joe's Hopper, and Schroeder's Parachute Hopper (links are to what I think are the best video versions of each pattern). And on the foam side, there are a ton of equally great patterns besides the Morrish Hopper (above) like the Boy Wonder Hopper, GFA Hopper, Foamulator, and the Pink Pookie Hopper - among about a thousand other options.
Beetles
Again, I've written plenty about beetles in other places (see links both above and below for Project Terrestrial posts). While I think your standard foam beetle is hard to beat here - and it is what I use most of the time - my other favorite pattern is Ross Mueller's BHP (brown-hackle peacock) beetle. The BHP beetle is effective everywhere I have tried it and is really effective in imitating smaller beetles. If there is an improvement to the fly I generally make, it is to add some sort of indicator to improve its visibility to the angler.
Beetles are incredibly diverse - the most diverse of the animals and it is not particularly close. I like to tie a few beetles that are nearly round (I find these around willows quite regularly), some that are your more standard beetle, and some that are quite elongate. The Bad Axe Beetle is an elongate option but I typically am tying my own foam beetles on a 2XL or 3XL hook. For a stouter beetle, the Green Beetle or Ground Beetle are good foam beetle options. And the aptly named, Stupid Orange Beetle, works better than it should.
There is not much simpler to tie than a foam beetle and the variations you can tie are about endless. Vary the length:width ratio by tying on longer or shorter hooks, play around with different foam colors, and different underbody materials - though peacock herl is hard to beat! I generally prefer fine rubber (silicone) legs but Krystal Flash, deer hair fibers, and other materials work well, particularly on smaller flies. Foam beetles are another place where tying them on a nymph hook can be advantageous.
Ants
Ants are incredibly simple to imitate as they are not much other than two bumps with a smaller "waist" between the bumps. A lot of ant patterns don't look much like ants but they seem to work just fine. A personal favorite that probably is equally at home in the attractor category is the Bionic Ant. More than any other terrestrial fly group, ants can be really difficult to see on the water and for these old eyes, I like ways that make them easier to see. The Bionic Ant is quite visible - and quite often I am fishing it in pink (who knows why, but it works).
If there is a problem with the Bionic ant, it is that it is hard to tie them effectively in smaller sizes and they are not the most realistic of ants. A simple and effective version you'll probably never see in a fly shop because it simply isn't "glitzy" enough is the
Cupboard Ant. It has a parachute - which is another simple ant imitation that I prefer - the parachute ant. A commercial version is the Royal Ant, a bit more complex version.
Parachutes are great but there are other ways that visibility can be built into ant patterns. Probably the most common are down wing ant patterns - which also represent winged ants which I never travel without in the summer. Hitting a winged / flying ant "hatch", or whatever you want to call it when you see a ton of them hit the water, makes for amazing fishing. A couple of commercial versions are the Glitter Ant and Ant Acid but there are tons of other options. The fur ant (above) is another simple fly and is not terribly visible - but I'd fish this with a leader greased to within a foot of so of the fly. If it sinks a bit, so much the better.
Crickets
Crickets are generally rather ignored by fly anglers and tyers - which is maybe why I sometimes have rather great success fishing them. What I don't think a cricket fly pattern should be is just a black hopper pattern - unless they are generally scaled down a bit. Compared to hoppers, crickets are usually a little shorter and stockier - hoppers with "dad bods". Charlie Craven's Baby Boy Cricket (below) is a good approximation of a cricket.
My personal favorite pattern is what I typically call "My Cricket" - innovative naming, I know. It is a bit of a modification of Tom Wendelberg's cricket and I give the pattern and how to tie it in the post, "My Driftless Bakers Dozen Fly Concepts". It is a pattern I've tied about 10 dozen for the Driftless Angler, once. I don't love tying commercially so I generally tie half a dozen each summer for Geri and that's about as close to commercial tying as I get most years.
Compared to the other types of terrestrials, you will have fewer commercially available cricket choices. The DA currently has the Parachute Cricket available, at least online. I think often flies like the Skater Tot and beetle imitations are probably, maybe even often, taken as crickets but who knows.
Other Terrestrials
There are a number of other terrestrial insects that make their way to the water. Certainly we heard a lot about the great cicada emergence of 2024 - even if I have not gotten to experience it.
Besides cicadas, there are caterpillars of moths and butterflies that make their way into the water along with a host of other smaller terrestrials like leafhoppers. A pattern I never hear much about here in the Midwest but is a classic and incredibly popular Pennsylvania fly is the Green Weenie. I almost always see them tied with beads today. Is it an inchworm? Or a caddis larvae? Who knows but I do know they work quite well though I've not tried them in some years. A number of green inch worm dry flies tied with foam or deer hair exist.
Leaf Hopper image, non-commercial use through Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/
I write about these patterns a bit more in the post on "the classics", a post about non-foam terrestrials. Rarely in the Midwest will you see fly shops carry these patterns but you would probably find them in most Pennsylvania fly shops.
A Terrestrial Fly Box
Quite often in the summer, I pack a terrestrial fly box in a shirt pocket and go wet wading, something I have, of course, written about in more detail previously. And I stand by those words about my summer fly box - I want a box that fits in a pocket that contains "a bit of everything". I am rather fly pattern agnostic so I don't get too worked up about what particular pattern I am carrying. When I name a pattern below, it is because there are ones I have tons of tied up and have supreme confidence in.
My mid-summer terrestrial fly box certainly has the following in it:
Hippie Stompers - sizes 14, 16, and 18 in a variety of colors
Morrish Hoppers in at least a couple of colors and sizes
A non-foam hopper or two
A Chubby Chernobyl / Training Wheels in a couple of colors
My Cricket
Foam beetles in a few sizes and shapes
A few small BHP Beetles
Bionic Ants in black and pink, proably in two different sizes
The Poodle (yeah, I'll keep that one a bit closer to the vest, for now)
Dr. J's X-Legs in a few different versions so I can give it a thorough test drive
Stupid Orange Beetle - because sometimes you just need to switch it up
In addition to the terrestrial flies, I carry a few CDC and Elk flies because sometimes they are not on terrestrials and I can "summon them up" by twitching a caddis, and I carry a variety of small nymphs - both a few slim bodied ones and a few thicker bodied ones - along with at least a couple of scuds. I am sometimes fishing these nymphs on their own but most of the time on a dropper. However, if I'm having a reasonably decent day with just the dry fly, the dropper never gets tied on. Lastly, it is summer and I have some tricos with me for the morning spinner fall.
I currently have, more or less, two of these boxes ready to go. I like Cliff Outdoors boxes and The Big Cliff and the smaller The Day's Worth to carry these flies. Most of the time, I grab the smaller box - I like the challenge and am not a huge believer that I need to carry every fly I own. If I am using the smaller box, I have to pair that longer list down a bit.
I do, however, have a couple of "bulk boxes" - something like a Plano 3700 box - full of flies in the vehicle. I refill the bulk boxes over the winter and use them to replenish the boxes I carry during the season. Though both my Cliff boxes and the bulk boxes are a little anemic right now because I've been working through the boxes and tying a lot less latley. Not to worry, I have plenty of other flies sitting around.
I include links throughout to Driftless Angler fly patterns - my local fly shop. If you don't tie, they are a great place to get flies or use your local fly shop. I'll purchase a number of flies I don't really need to give them a try and if I like them, find ways to copy them or at least the parts of them that I like.
Project Terrestrial Installments
Part 7 - Seasons of the Terrestrial "Bugs" - a terrestrial fly box (this post)
I've always liked the chaos Hopper for its simplicity.