we talked about access,rods,line,manners and how many flies so far and I'm quite sure over the years Flies too but..
Help this coot out just a bit and lets discuss "free water" flies..
Now before you say I should know or it's just basic flies, please bear in mind last year was all "free" water for me in at least 20 years.. I watched you guys "spank" them while I was humbled with what was to me the wrong stuff (as far as my box was )
Now here is my trip into history..
1. spank chinooks down low with #2-4 bright comets, big bunny flies and an occasional subdued leech..
2. Coho-Silvers, liked RED, not too big but a red size 6 estaz or black wooly bugger with red tail
3. fish mid-upper river to spawning salmon to pull the jockeying males with size# 6-8 crayfish, stones or buggers away from the female..
That has been my success over the years:
Last year I blew it on #3.. All the wrong stuff, I had 1 & 2 in my box.. My only fish came from a size #4 brown bunny leech and some flies donated from the catching crew :)
 
So maybe you "free" water salmon slayers can give up 1 or 2 must have patterns in the box...
The colors are endless, but I am asking type, size and material (flash-no flash) ..
I think I know 2bobs ; and  I watched Jacks rod jump wildly everytime he threw a small peach egg fly in :)
I want to start tying :)
 

HT, I believe I gave you the fly and pattern that brought me success in that mid river spot we hit with Fichy. 
Colored bead head, estaz thorax, with goose biot tails and a cooper john body in size 6 or 8 nymph hook.  Color combos are endless but black or chartreuse wire body with chartreuse, fuschia, orange or blue estaz, orange, chartreuse or gold beadhead.  Fish it without any additional weight dead drift through the hole.         

I'm still learning flies and patterns myself cause ive only gotten into fly fishing the last 2 years. 
 
But my go to is a popsicle fly. Especially late season when Browns and Steelies are in. For some reason I've always had good luck with them. Tie a dozen in different colors, (I did a black and silver one last year that was nice). 

COLOR is the thing,find the color of the day and you'll have a tight line.
I have every color in the spectrum on my person or back in the room while on the SR.Rich mentioned the peach egg,the very next day I was at the same spot with many more fish present and not having the success I thought I should have with the peach egg.So I started to switch to other flys/colors and I found that a light blue estaz egg fly was what they wanted,fish on from then on until I quit for the day.
Colors that I find to work are red,blue,orange,black,chartreuse,salmon,pink,white,oregon cheese,olive,rusty brown.......etc.Combinations of all those colors work,also have luck with different streamers at times....bucktails,mickey finn,wolly buggers,egg sucking leaches.....nympths as Gerry said can be deadly,the prince,pheasant tail,copper john,stone fly all work at times.
And with all these use as little weight as possible to get just a slight bottom tick on the drift and keep as much of the fly line off the water so your drift is without drag.
I wonder what the color of the day will be this season? Can't wait to find out!
 

Color seems to change almost daily and frankly Kinda think so does size on many days.
 Has anyone ever heard of any kind of study having been done where water clarity and the general brightness or cloudiness on a particular day has to do with a fishes vision ???
 In the case of Kings we know they have, or are in the process, of shutting down their digestive system as they run but then we know the hit certain colors better than others on different days.
 The 'bite' IMHO must then be dependent on something else besides general protection of a bed or agresivenes- -with those one may well think they would hit most anything.
 Perhaps what they can see the best -depending on conditions- may be a partial answer ????

Until we can fjnd away to communicate with the Salmon we will never know for sure what color turns them on ad for what reason.
After the day that the blue color worked,that day was the last day of that trip.I hit the river the next week on my next trip up expecting to slay them with blue,you guessed it they ignored blue.Started to switch flies/color and found they wanted dark/black flys,wooly buggers,egg sucking leaches,big stones,anything big and black caught fish.On that particular trip I played wth so many fish I got worn out.I was so tired the last day I fell in the drink twice from being worn out.
The weather and water flow was identical those two trips,so that does n't help.You just have to have a variety of flys/color and keep switching till you find what works.Also,if you are not hooking up and others are and they are not lifting look or ask what's working,most people will help. 

I like to use sucker spawn in the flesh color with a little flashabo added  seems to get some very good hits later in the year Jan thru apr  estaz fly earlier sep to dec for me keep drifting till i find the color they want royal blue works good so i start with that
 

Thanks folks for all the response. It seems we must carry a mirage of various flies to be ready for anything. I know at least when I fished in the lower pay area I could really narrow my flies down to Two or maybe 3 patterns only to vary the colors .

I will be heading to the greater Pulaska next week so a stock of new tying materials will be in order.
I think aside from my 3 free water flies
1. Size 6 -8 stone fly on salmon hook
2. Size 6 Brown- olive woolly bugger
3. Size 4 purple bunny leech
I will need a few dozen estaz and egg flies to add

HT,
 
It has been along time since I have seriously pursued the sharks in the Salmon, and we were usually down low as well, but we usually kept it simple, Woolly worms, comets, buggers, and of course glo bugs, in all the HOT colors, occasionally small nymphs or steelhead flies.  If I decide to brave the crowds, I'll likely be in the same boat as you, but the above and what you have listed seems like a good place to start.  And for me, I'm more interested in finding the early chromers that are coming in behind the Salmon, so I don't think I will mind not catching kings, as long as I find a coho or a steelhead once in a while.
 
L13