Man, let me tell you about the Adams - this little guy's been saving my bacon on trout streams for what, fifteen years now? I mean, it's not the fanciest fly in my box, but holy cow does it get the job done when fish are being picky. I remember one time on the Madison, nothing was working until I switched to a size 16 Adams and bam - three rainbows in fifteen minutes.

So how's it put together? Okay, you've got your grizzly and brown hackle - that's the feathery stuff wrapped around the hook that makes it look like, you know, legs kicking in the water. Then there's the gray dubbing for the body (I like to mix in a tiny bit of sparkle sometimes, but purists will give you the stink eye). The tail's moose hair - or at least it's supposed to be, though I've used deer hair in a pinch when I ran out last fall. Whoops.

Here's the magic though - this fly's basically the Swiss Army knife of mayflies. Or wait, is it more like... whatever, point is, trout see it as whatever they're hungry for that day. Early season? Mayfly. Summer evening hatch? Caddis. Those tiny midges in winter? Yep, downsized Adams works for that too. I swear half the fish I've caught on it probably thought it was something completely different than what I intended.

Oh! Almost forgot - watch your hackle length. When I first started tying these, I'd get carried away and the legs would be too long. Fish would swipe but miss the hook. Took me like, what, two seasons to figure that one out? Classic rookie move.

There's a million videos out there showing the exact tying process (my buddy Dave's got a decent one where he spills his coffee at the 3 minute mark - classic Dave). But really, the best way to learn is to mess up a dozen of them like I did. Just don't do what I did and try to tie them in the car before dawn. Lost a good hook that way.