Filling my Patagonia Fly Boxes

I’ve been tying quite a few flies the last couple of weeks in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Chile and Argentina. I thought I’d provide an update on filling my Patagonia fly boxes. I still have many more to tie, but have been concentrating on the hers and his dry fly boxes.

Dancingtrout should be happy to have a full box of large dry flies that have worked in previous years. Above you’ll see size 8 and 10 Fat Alberts in black and tan (top 4 rows), those pesky size 8 Swisher’s PMX Royal flies I had so much trouble tying, and the bottom row of size 8 Card’s Cicadas.

The next two boxes are a work in progress. The top two rows are Purple Haze and Parachute Adams. The third row from the top are size 14 and 16 Arrick’s Parachute Ants in black and cinnamon. The next row are size 10 and 12 Flying Ants. The bottom row is comprised of size 10 Chubby Chernobyls in gold and purple.

Here is a closeup of the purple Chubby Chernobyls…

and size 10 gold Chubby’s.

I don’t know if we’ll see any Cicadas in either country, but I’m prepared for them!

Here is a closer view.

Arrick’s Parachute Ant is one of our favorite ant patterns and have worked very well. I decided to tie them in two colors, black and cinnamon.

Lastly, the list of flies to bring included Flying Ant imitations. I haven’t tied any of these before, but searched the Internet for some inspiration and came up with this fly pattern.

I’m anxious to give them a try. If we don’t see any in South America, I know they will get some use on my home waters of the Metolius!

I plan to add a few Elk Hair Caddis and X Caddis and think I’ll have all the dry flies completed. You might notice there aren’t any hoppers in the fly boxes. They are in a small provider box I’ll be taking.

I’ll tie several bead head nymphs for droppers. Yes, you heard that right! A few standard nymph patterns will travel with me and I’ll fish them if the fish aren’t looking up. In addition, I plan to take a few streamer patterns too.

I wonder how much all these flies will weigh?

Lastly, I wanted to thank those of you who sent a Comment from last week’s Woes of a Fly Tyer post. I really enjoyed reading them. I have to agree with several of you who stated all the flies would catch fish. I just like the final product to live up to my expectations. Once a fish or two eat them, the flies may not have all their parts, but will still catch fish.

Enjoy…go fish!