When winter presents those intermittent, and often too infrequent, periods of moderate weather, it’s an opportunity to take out the long rod for trout.

Be it Lake Erie-run rainbows or stream-dwelling browns and brookies, these three flies will help keep you in the action.

Woolly Bugger

Few flies are as versatile as the Woolly Bugger, which can be used to mimic baitfish, crawfish and leeches — all important fodder for trout, especially larger ones.

While the Woolly Bugger is effective in a variety of stream conditions, it excels when the water is running slightly off-color and flow conditions run from normal to high. The fall norm might be low, clear water, but weather patterns the past two years have provided plenty of water during the autumn.

The Woolly Bugger is tied in several colors. Black provides a good profile when the water is dirty. Olive and brown also work well when there is some color to the stream.

As things clear up, white should be the first choice. Colors can be mixed and matched as well.

The time of the season has a lot to do with how you work a Woolly Bugger. In cold water it is important to fish it slow and close to the bottom. A dead drift is effective and any action imparted should be limited to twitching the rod tip.

Lead eyes help bring the fly down, as does a sinking tip fly line.

One thing is certain: Woolly Buggers fall into the can’t-fish-it-wrong category.

Sucker Spawn

It is no secret trout like to eat eggs. Many anglers have duped them with salmon eggs during some part of their angling career.

Trout are engineered to key on egglike food, especially where trout and salmon run in tributary streams from large lakes. But the fact is all trout will respond to a well-presented egg pattern. That’s why you should be sure to carry some sucker spawn imitations during the fall through early spring.

Yarn is the foundation of many suker spawn patterns, though other materials have become part of th recipe in recent years.

In nature, fish eggs tend to be of brighter colors. As such, sucker spawn patterns mimic this. Orange, yellow, chartreuse, white, pink and gold are incorporated in sucker spawn flies. Most flies are tied onto a No. 12 to No. 18 hook. A tungsten bead can be incorporated to add a bit of weight.

It doesn’t take spawning fish to trigger an egg bite. In clearer water, white and pink are effective. Yellows and golds may be better picks in the spring as they do a good job of mimicking the eggs of suckers and carp, which are fish that spawn in the spring.

But nothing is etched in stone. As with most fishing situations, it pays to experiment.

Sucker spawn patterns should be fished near the bottom at the same pace as the flow. A strike indicator assists in revealing a hit.

Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph

Since most aquatic insects spend the majority of their existence as water-based life forms, it only makes sense that anglers should carry a selection of flies that mimic them.

The bead head pheasant tail nymph is a good all-around lure that is tied in a variety of colors. Black and olive are popular colors, and sizes No. 10 through No. 20 are common

Like sucker spawn, a BHPTN should be fished close to the bottom. Fish take the nymph during the drift, as well as on the “swing,” where the fly reaches the end of the drift and rises toward the surface at an accelerated rate.

Some anglers use strike indicators while others rely on high sticking, where the tip of the rod is held high to keep a minimum of line on the water and to create the contact needed to sense a strike.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.