The euro cream dart is one of my favorite flies both due to it’s ease of tying and ability to catch fish. You can mix and match color options, but the basic fly is easy to tie. The key benefit of this fly is it’s slim profile. a bulky fly with the same bead size will sink 2-3x slower than this fly. I’ve learned that a sparsely tied fly is almost just as good as a heavily weighted fly.

This flies large head and wing case that is created by the UV resin seems to be the secret sauce. This fly is a very good imitation of a baetis and isn’t that popular yet in most areas. A fly that isn’t fished by other anglers, but should be, is a good fly to use on pressured waters where fish haven’t see the fly very much.

This fly is very versatile and will work anywhere caddis are active and trout are feeding. The CDC creates a great buggy look to the fly while the elk or deer hair helps it stay afloat easily. This combination of floatation and bugginess is rarely found and makes this a great all purpose caddis. Use some Doc’s Dry Dust or CDC feather dust floatant since products like Gink don’t work with CDC feathers.

As if the old elk hair caddis didn’t have enough going for it, the X2 Caddis just had to come in and stomp all over it. This pattern sits more flush on the surface which gives it a more realistic look to the fish, always a plus. The tail, or trailing shuck, also give the fly a more appealing look from beneath. The shuck means that the bug would still be in the process of emerging, and therefore be an easier meal.