Anyone who has ever glanced at fly selections in the numerous catalogues or read an article on sea trout fishing will know the names of every sea trout fly that they need to - Peter Ross, Mallard & Claret, Teal, Blue & Silver, Stoats Tail, Dark Mackerel and Invicta. If one of that lot, in one size or another, doesn't do the trick then it's a strange night indeed.
These same flies will have a different name in Wales and some will have an endless list of variants. I know a Sweeny Todd and a Stinchar Stoats Tail are subtly different, but I don't think a sea trout does, here you can substitute the names indefinitely, but the equation remains the same.
On my local river, I have come to use very sparsely tied flies, which are mainly variants of the first named group. One or two turns of a dyed hackle on a silver hook describes many of them. Much like the Northern wet flies, they are tied with long fibred "henny cock" hackles that have a bit of kick in the water. These flies become sleek and streamlined as soon as the leader comes under tension. I have experimented with marabou, CdC and Arctic fox with some success but always come back to the oversize "Stewart Spiders" because I like the look of them. I assume the sea trout do too, or is it simply my confidence in them that is the attraction?

We need not go to far down this route. Of course you will fish well with a fly that you have confidence in but that confidence is borne of experience (not necessarily your own), not whim. Being confident in a fly for no reason, but ignorance seldom has the same result. You noticed I said 'seldom'; 'never' is a word that does not exist in sea trout, salmon, or any other kind of fishing as far as I am concerned. In reference to salmon, an Irish gillie of my acquaintance once said, "anyone who thinks they know a lot about salmon fishing hasn't done enough of it". That applies equally to sea trout.

Expendable flies
Still, there are a few things that can make that all-important peg to hang your sea trout hat on. Sea trout like silver, they like black, they like red, and they like barred wings. In some conditions, they like yellow bodies like the Invicta and the Greenwells; in others they like claret. Certain rivers have their own favourites and it would be daft to rail against local experience. The Brown Turkey on certain Solway rivers is a prime example, and I am sure you can all name many others.

I spend a lot of my time during the sea trout season guiding people keen to catch fish. This is generally a game of playing the percentages. Certain flies like the Teal, Blue & Silver and Peter Ross are so often successful that they will always be on the cast, especially early in the season. Other flies that deserve their place are the Silver Stoat and the Butcher.

My attitude to sea trout flies is flavoured by their need to be expendable. My tying of these silver flies is generally on a silver hook - the Salar hooks by Partridge are very good. This dispenses with the need to use silver tinsel, a material that is prone to damage when in contact with sea trout teeth, and produces a wonderful sleek and, if I might borrow from Mr Arden, "sexy fly".

Silver-bodied variations
When I am not using silver hooks, I make my silver bodies by applying butting turns of silver wire. This comes in a range of thicknesses - 3-amp to 30-amp, 5-,10- and 13-amp being the most useful for sea trout flies.

Tie the wire in at the head lap it to the bend and then rib it back, this makes a neat, slim reflective body with loads of facets to catch the light. It allows the adding of a little weight without bulk, very handy when you want a fly with a bit of bite. They are great for pool tails, where lighter/bulkier flies often tend to skid on the surface (not always a bad thing but it's nice to have it as a matter of choice).

I generally use fine wire low water salmon hooks in sizes 4, 6, 8, and 10, all tied short, Wood salmon fly style. This enables me to use a big hook and have a lot of it hanging out the back. I hate using flying trebles and find short dressed flies almost as useful for the "tail nippers". The joy of only having one hook to disengage from fish, net, hat or jumper is hard to give up once realised. The easy release of unwanted fish - and especially parr - without the need to handle them is also important.

All the standard patterns work well with this style of tying, and some I radically simplify - the Peter Ross and Butcher being almost the same but one has a turn of black and a turn of teal/mallard hackle tied ahead of a crimson one; the other just a couple of turns of black.

One fly that I have a great love for is the Silver Rat, a salmon fly from America's Atlantic coast. I think the name derives from RA Thomson rather than the creature that provides the dressing. This fly has a lot going for it - silver body, barred squirrel wing and a little grizzle collar hackle that makes it fizz through the water. It has a very sedgy/stonefly sort of look about it but it could also be a flashy fry imitator. It is a fly I generally fish on the dropper - it gives the opportunity to fish a slim dark fly in the point like a Stoats Tail or a Mallard & Claret but maintain that bit of flash in the cast.

The other flies that are required are those that provide a silhouette, and these I have come to tie with clipped deer hair, usually like a Muddler or Humpy. The floating lure is the extreme of this genre of flies.

I have used a floating lure on many occasions and have concluded that, on their day, they are a great way of assessing the stock of a pool. It is amazing to see fish swirling at a big floating lure in pools that have seemed empty. It does not happen all the time and when it does the number of fish hooked is usually minimal compared to the action.

Fish so often seem to want to kill the surface lure rather than eat it. They throw themselves on it, batter it with their tails - anything but take a good hold on it. If you dislike the idea of flying trebles, etc, one option is to go for something a little smaller. I use a clipper deer hair, Muddler-like fly. It furrows the surface but does not float like a cork, and it can be tied in various colours and sizes. To do the job of the floating lure I use a size 4 low water hook or a Tiemco sedge/nymph hook in a similar size. Stuff on as much deer hair as possible and you have a good surface lure-type fly. I tie in a sparse squirrel wing with a few strands of peacock Flashabou on top, then loads of bunches of natural, black, or white deer hair spun on and clipped in a style a bit like the Dahlberg Diver. I have always thought the dark version worked best when stoneflies were buzzing about on the surface.

If this is slashed at and bumped, but lasting contact is not forthcoming, I will fish a smaller version. I often fish this fly as a dropper with a short clipped head as it makes a semi-wake fly and will keep everything up in the water nicely. I am of the persuasion that holds that fish will come up for a fly but rarely go down for one.
Later in the season I will often fish the Muddler-style fly on the point to keep the leader and dropper up out of the glet (algae) that accumulates around the stones in low warm water conditions.

Excerpt from article taken from February 2002 issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, in which Tony King goes on to describe the presentation of these different flies, the leaders he uses and how the flies can be fished in snaggy water.

Tony King- a highly experienced sea trout fisher - writes regularly in Fly Fishing and Fly Tying