Montana Stone Fly

I had put away my fishing stuff in favor of the shotgun and waterfowling. However a change in the weather caused me to decide to give the warmwater fish one last try for the year. I packed my rod and tackle box in the truck and headed out to find some crappie and bluegill.

When I arrived at my destination I was dismayed to discover that I had left allmost all of my flies at home. I rumaged through my tackle box and found a small container of Montana Stone Flies that I use when fishing for brown trout on one of the local rivers. Since that was about all I had with me I decided to give them a whirl. After 3 hours of fishing I had caught maybe 20 crappie, 30 gills and 10 yellow perch. I know you it is common to catch warmwater fish on trout flies, but what amazed me was the vicious strikes I would get with this fly. More than one it would hit the water, sink a bit and then the line would just straighten out and the fish would hook itself. More than once a 7 inch gill would have the fly inhaled so deep that I had a difficult time removing it. All in all a pleasant experience.

My Montana Stone Fly Pattern: Hook: Mustad 9671, #8;
Body: Lead under and back 2/3 of hook black chenille and top 1/3 yellow chenille; Hackle: Three turns of black hackle palmered through the yellow chenille. (no tail or shell back). An easy tie and quite effective for me today.

Tim Anderson

I find that when the Montana stone does not produce a switch to a Box Canyon Stone will often bring pleasent results...I fish nymph's harder during the fall months for warm water species...they work well into the winter. I'm not suprised by your findings....sounds like a great day to me!