Roe

SIZE: 5-12 mm (3/16 to 1/2 in), typical

COLOR: Varies widely depending on species and state of egg

About Roe

Fish lay eggs, and other fish eat those eggs. It's that simple. From fall through June, it's common to find roe drifting in the streams. That roe may have come from salmon, whitefish, suckers, brown trout, rainbow trout--whatever. Each egg is rich in protein, and desired by other fish. Match this "hatch" and you can have good fishing.

Some fly anglers, however, refuse to cast a fly that imitates roe. To them, it smacks of Pautzke's Great Balls of Fire and is one babystep away from fishing with bait. But roe is natural food, and anglers have to match size and color of that food, and present it near the bottom with a dead drift--not an easy thing to do.

Roe comes in many sizes and colors. Each fish species produces a different size egg, and that egg can change color depending on how old it is, whether it was fertilized or not, and other factors. If you miss the right size and color, your fishing will suffer.

Articles About Roe

Click headline to read entire article

Egg Flies For most of the winter, eggs-over-easy are on the trout menu Jeff Morgan

Sticky Flies Sometimes you wish you had Velcro flies.Jeff Morgan

Egg Flies for Alaska To paint or not to paint? Imitating salmon roe with beads. But first--is it really fly fishing? And does that matter?Scott Richmond

STAGE

PATTERN

SIZE/
COLOR

PRESENTATION

WHERE

Whitefish

Egg Fly

6-10/Pink, peach, white, purple, many others

Indicator, Tight line

Rivers