As the thousands of salmon deposit spawn on the bottoms of rivers everywhere their mysterious lifecycle comes to an end. When these river giants start to decay pieces of flesh release from the carcasses and float downstream where ravenous rainbows waste little time cleaning up the scraps. So much attention is paid to bears and eagles feeding on the dying salmon, but rainbow trout play as important of role as the others in this process. Lucky for fly anglers there is a fly pattern that simulates these decaying pieces of meat, the flesh fly.

Flesh flies are nothing more than bunny types of flies that use pastel shades of orange, red and white to imitate the many bits and pieces of flesh from decaying fish. Natural shades of white and grey are always a safe bet to carry with you but patterns that incorporate oranges and whites together have definite fish catching ability.

Fishing flesh fly patterns is easy. Basically these flies are effective anytime there is salmon in the rivers, late summer and fall. Cast this fly upstream of the hole you intend to fish and allow it to drift naturally along the bottom. Using an indicator on your line will help you identify strikes quicker especially if fishing faster flows. Adding a split shot or two to your line or a few extra wraps of lead free weight to the body of the fly will help get your flesh fly down deep fast to where the big fish hold.

When the rainbows are turned on to eating these bits and pieces of salmon flesh it will not take long for you to see the potency of this simple pattern. On your next trip pack a few flesh flies in various sizes and colors and see if you can tempt a few of those voracious rainbows in biting.