For trout, give me a Clouser, then an Adams, then a Muddler Minnow.

Ill have to go with a Clouser because i have hooked my biggest smallmouth (6.2 pds) on a size 10 gray and whit Clouser fishing for crappie.

Two favorites: grand hopper and damsel fly. They both catch fish on rivers or flat water all season long. I live in an area where I can use one or the other to catch trout, bluegill, large mouth, crappie, small mouth and the occasional perch.
I know that neither one is a "classic" fly, but they are work horses that get the job done more often than not.

Stonefly for me. I've hooked countless trout on a stonefly, and I never leave home without one. I've even hooked fish with a stonefly in rivers where there aren't any naturally occurring stoneflies. Weird huh?

Conehead pine squirrel sculpin would have to be my choice.

The Wulff is a great fly for where I fish for trout, and if you fish it wet you can hook some monster Browns.

if i had to only choose ONE fly, i'd go with a # 20 bh zebra midge. i can catch fish here in MT year round with one.

1) #12 Black Woolly Bugger
2) #6 Clouser Minnow (black over white)
3) #8 Deer Hair Sculpin

There are so many great flys to choose from, my favorite list would have about 20 patterns on it alone.

teebox25
The vary thing that makes flyfishing so great you are trying to avoid...takes time to get good at it, and most often it is the ability to cast well, and present the fly rather than the magic of a certain fly. A beginner may get nothing on a particular pattern, and think it is the pattern's fault, and an accomplished fly fisherman catch one after another on the same pattern. Flyfishing is an art form..anyone can learn how, but it takes a commitment, and a willingness to put in the time, and get good at it.

Elk Hair caddis by far my best dry fly, and Prince Nymph is my favorite wet fly.

My favorite pattern is the Crossdresser. I have caught a little bit of everything on this pattern from rainbow trout, brook trout, brown trout, and even steelhead. It has proven to be a goto fly for me.

size 10 pink beaver nymph
size 8 black bugger with green crystal flash
size 10 bloody bugger
size 10 Turkey Leech cone headed

have to say out west has to be subsurface with all the munching being done below the surface a phesant tail nymph ! lakes to rivers . look what Jim Teeny did with the teeny nymph for metal heads,i have caught all species on this proven pattern.

Never heard of that one, will have to spin a few up.

I would have to go with a #8 Muddler minnow tied with a Golden Pheasant neck under wing (my own pattern). I have caught everything from Sunfish to Steelhead on it. In the dog days of summer it can be fished dry as a Grasshopper, and at other times wet as a streamer/minnow.

I have a problem picking less than a dozen but if limited it would be the gold bead head black wooly bugger, Adams, and North Fork Special.

a wooly bugger worked upstream will catch fish any day in any condition

My enjoyment using a fly is to choose the right one according to observation. Many times I know what will be hatching, and seldom go without having the fly I think will work on the rod before I leave. May have to change, but I have a notion from the getgo. And when I launch my driftboat, it acts like a golf bag. I have 4 or 5 rods already rigged..a small fly rod, a streamer rod, a soft hackle rod, and a dry fly I think will work. And presentation is often the key over the fly.

Dry- Grey Dun
Sub-surface- Woolly Bugger

The One Fly Tourney in Jackson Hole, WY...one of the biggest and most prestigious, was forced to retire the "Double Bunny" fly because it won maybe 3 yrs. in a row. A Scott Sanchez designed fly.
More than likely depends on the water being fished what fly will work the best. I fish rivers the most, and by far and away the fly that has caught the most trout for me, is the dry fly... STIMULATOR..a Randall Kaufman creation. But I like dry flies, and float long sections...many, many years throwing big stimulators into good trout looking haunts and catching trout...still my favorite pattern.

Pass Lake. If you don't know what that is, you ain't a cheesehead.

for me it would have to be the hornburg because its the first fly i ever fished with and got many trout