Stoneflys and panfish

Many many years ago, I remember a co-worker of mine telling me about catching a bunch of gills, crackers and crappie on a nearby lake. He told me about these black flylike bugs falling into the water off the trees and the fish tearing them up! At that time, we fished with spinning rods and a tiny black feather jig called a "popeye". I will try to post a picture of a "popeye" later. Over the years, I have seen these flies on this lake but never paid much attention until I got interested in fly fishing and bugs. I caught one (a bug) and gave it to my wife who works for the University of Ky. She sent it off to the "bug man". He contacted me the other day and said it was a Stonefly. Does anyone else have any stories about panfish and stoneflies? Also would find some "simple" life cycle info about these flys. Nymph stages etc. I did a search for some info but some off the info is "too much information". I would like to hear it from a fishermans point of view.

I fish two spring fed ponds that are in between a small creek and a good sized river. The gills are always eating bug on the suface. Mostly caddisflies but also mayflies, I don't think I've seen them eat any stones but Iam sure they do. There are stones that hatch on both the creek and the river and I have caught fish on both waters with stonefly patterns, so Iam sure they reside in the ponds also. Just yesterday I had very good results on one of the ponds using a generic parachute pattern, the gills were breaking the surface all over. Iam sure you could use any stone patterns typically associated with trout fishing and produce some gills. Hit the shoreline and flip over some rocks and logs in the water, you should be able to see whats going on down there. Try some dragon/damselfly nymphs too, their in there and can be very productive. Good luck and keep us up to date on how you do!