No need to get too creative

The prince is one of the most popular nymphs around, because it works. Patterns vary a bit from shop to shop, but I've found the tweaks to the pattern by The Rivers Edge in Montana (legs and a little flash) and durability of those from The Fly Shop in Redding are the ones most worth buying in bulk. Yesterday I got into some fat rainbows on the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus with a prince and a single split shot to get it down. The water isn't really deep where I hooked up, but in the swift current, the shot gets the nymph down to the fish much faster.There are some really nice rainbows in there and plenty of action. Even the smaller ones are beautiful and feisty.It's the last weekend the lower section of the Middle Fork is open until April, so I might just have to go out again tomorrow.