Fly imitations list

[Gleason Cleveland]

Is there such a list of flies that may be tied to represent certain real insects? What flies will match the Isonychia

[Normand]

http://www.google.com/search?q=Isonychi ... =firefox-a

[okflyfisher]

I will give a general answer entomology on this site... not quite entomology

and here http://www.westfly.com/ento/ento.htm

[dudley]

Try the book; Art Flick's "new" Streamside Guide to naturals and their imitations
This revised edition of his earlier work was published in 1969.
Some of the Catskill style imitations shown don't see as much use as some more modern flies (but still work)
But full color pictures of the naturals and imitations are shown side by side

He recommends a Dun Variant as an isonychia dry
I would use a Slate Drake Comparadun, myself

[peregrines]

Gleason,

The answer to your questions are yes and yes. Normand and OkFlyfisher have given you good info on Isonychia patterns. More generally to answer your first question, though, there are a lot of resources here on FAOL like the ?Not Quite Entomology? section already mentioned that will give patterns and helpful info on fishing specific hatches, like time of day (morning afternoon, evening) that hatches typically occur and water type (fast, riffles, slow etc.) where they?re most likely to be found, as well as the more general info on time of year they emerge. (For example, Isonychia are often found in or below riffles and typically hatch in late afternoon to early evening.)

There are also other sites on the web like www.troutnut.com if you want to go really crazy with the details and biology of different hatches. Some excellent books to check out are Hatches II by Caucci (for mayflies) and Caddisflies by Lafontaine, with hatch specific fly patterns covering different stages of the life cycles of specific hatches. Good winter reading, but now it?s time to fish!.

Hatch Charts are another resource too. You can google them for areas you plan to fish, or better, get them from local fly shops since hatches may vary somewhat from river to river.

Here?s one for Southern Ontario as an example:

http://www.grindstoneangling.com/hatch.html

When trying to match a specific hatch, remember that there are different stages to think about (nymphs, emergers, duns, and spinners for mayflies and larvae, pupae, and adults for caddis) though the duns and adult caddis get most of the press. So feel free to tie patterns for Isonychia that match the large size, usually 10, and some 12. (A few earlier season mid summer Iso hatches can even be 8s.) Just match the body and wing color of the natural at your tying desk. Iso nymphs are dark, often with a white stripe down each side. And the duns have dark reddish brown or chocolate bodies, cream colored tails and dark gray wings.

There are also many ?styles? of fly patterns, especially for dry flies. Don?t feel you need all of them, but here are some dun Iso patterns as examples:

Catskill style with hackle (like the Adams). I like Dun Variants, but other good ones for the Iso hatch are Slate Drakes, Chocolate Duns, and dry versions of a Lead Wing Coachman. I mostly fish Dun Variants in size 10 and carry a few in size 12 and a couple in 8. It?s a good pattern to skitter around on the surface during a hatch too. I use a Dun Variant at least 80% of the time for Isonychia.

Wulff style hair wing Mahogany Duns are great for fast water and riffles in 10 and 12 and better visibility in lower light than the Dun Variants, but not as a close an imitation as a Dun Variant INHO.

Deer hair dries like Comparaduns, SparkleDuns and Haystacks in sizes 10 and 12 with dark gray wings, cream tails (or amber shuck) and dark reddish brown bodies. The Haystack is a great rough water pattern, the others are better for slower water.

Parachute style would work too I bet, though I haven?t tried them for Iso.

To imitate other stages of Isonychia:

Spinner White-Gloved Howdy is an Iso spinner pattern (so called because the adult Iso has white tips on its front legs) in 10 and 12 or you could make your own Iso spinner version with cream hackle tails, dark reddish brown body with poly wings tied spent wing. Or you could clip the hackle off the bottom and top of a Dun Wing Variant if they?re only taking spinners like I do when I?m lazy. Iso spinner falls can be very good. Tend to be heaviest in early evening.

A wet fly like the Lead Wing Coachman size 10, 12 is worth having too for the Iso hatch to fish on the swing down and across current.

Nymphs large dark ones are good in 10 and 12 for Iso. Since you probably already have them in your box, try Bead Head Prince and unweighted Prince nymphs in 10 and 12. You can fish the BH deep, and fish the unweighted prince higher in the water column to imitate an emerger. (You can even hang the unweighted version off a high floater like a Haystack or Mahogany dun as a dropper by tying it on 6? of tippet to the bend of the dry.) Other good ones for Iso nymphs you may already have in your box are Zug Bugs and black, brown or peacock wooly buggers (you may need to clip the tails shorter if you aren?t getting any hits on the buggers). The Isonychia Compara-nymph. is a more ?exact? imitation. Try a nymph if nothing is happening on top to your dries. Iso nymphs are fast swimmers and can be quite active throughout the day even though nothing is happening on top, so give a nymph a shot dead drifting and with quick strips to up your odds if nothing is happening on top, and to extend your fishing time since the Iso hatch doesn?t usually get going until late afternoon.

To just limit things to a few patterns, I go with a lot of Dun Variants in 10, some in 12. A few Mahogany Duns in 10, a couple wet Lead Wing Coachman in 12, some 10 White Gloved Howdys (or poly winged Iso spinners or clipped hackle Dun Variants) and some BH and unweighted Prince Nymphs in 10 and 12 and feel very well covered for Isonychia.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

peregrines

[peregrines]

Gleason-

Dudley?s choice of the Slate Drake Comparadun is a very good one, especially if you?re interested in tying flies to imitate specific hatches. The Comparadun is a ?style? of fly, and there are many examples of tying them, with step-by-step instructions and photos on the Fly Archives section of FAOL.

Sparkle Duns are similar, with the substitution of an antron shuck instead of tails on the Comparadun. The Sparkle Dun is a little easier to tie since you don?t have to fuss as much with split tails, and has the advantage of imitating both the dun and the emerger in one fly. You can find examples on the FAOL archives too.

If you?re not familiar with them, they rely on deer hair wings (not hackle) to provide floation, and sit low on the water. They?re very realistic, durable, and often the choice to fool finicky trout. With a good selection of dry fly dubbing, assorted dry fly hook sizes, and a few shades of deer hair you can imitate virtually all the mayfly duns you?re likely to run into. You can even tie the deer hair in ?elk hair caddis style? with an amber shuck to imitate different caddis (search FAOL fly archives for ?X Caddis?) to create hackle-less flies to imitate flies of all the different caddis hatches.

Another advantage of tying this style of fly for the beginning tyer, is that it helps avoid?.. or at least postpone, a major $ investment in dry fly hackle.

The only downside is that they don?t tend to float as well as hackled flies, and are less visible, in rough water, but this is more than made up for in slow glides, pools, etc where they often out fish more conventional flies.

To tie them you will need:

Dry Fly hooks in a range of sizes 4xlong size 12 (= size , and standard dry sizes 10-18 and up eye 20-24

Thread size 8/0 in olive, black, brown, tan, cream

Dry fly dubbing in a range of colors tan, dark brown, olive, cream, gray (and black and apple green for caddis) being the most useful.

Tailing material- you have a range of options including spade hackle from necks if you have them, or nylon microfibbets in a range of shades including cream, light dun, dark dun, and brown. Or you could simply use amber colored Antron yarn to make shucks for mayflies and caddis.

Wing material- fine deer hair, look for the shortest black tips you can find. It?s usually sold as ?Comparadun Hair? or Coastal Deer Hair and runs $2-4 a patch (3x3?). You can easily get 100 flies from each patch. You?ll want the hair in a few shades, light creamish, medium gray and dark slate gray. For dry flies smaller than 18 or 20, I skip the deer hair entirely and use CDC for wings in the same shades. It saves a lot of swearing.

Optional: some white and light gray poly yarn can be tied in spent wing style to imitate spinners.

Hatches II gives complete dressings for comparaduns to match mayfly duns ( and nymphs, emergers and spinners too.) Caddisflies gives complete dressings for Caddis. These books are great, but more expensive and heavier reading. Dudley?s suggestion of Art Flick?s book is an excellent one. Just convert the recommended fly dressings to Comparadun style by matching tail, body colors and wing shade.

For Isonychia, the Slate Drake Comparadun can be a size 8, 10 or 12 . Late in the season, like now, you?ll mostly have 10 and 12?s. I tie Iso Comparaduns in 12 since they are pretty meaty looking with the dubbed body. I?ll use hackled Dun Variants in 10 because the body is less bulky.) For early bigger Iso in 8, use a 4xlong size 12 dry fly hook like a Mustad 79580, which is the same length as an 8 but floats better because of its lighter wire and conceals the hook. I use this same hook for Eastern Green Drakes etc.)

Hook: mostly standard dry fly size 12, maybe some 10?s
Thread: black
Tail: cream microfibettes (or cream spade hackle or amber antron shuck)
Body: Dark reddish brown (mahogany color) dubbing
Wings: Dark gray coastal deer hair.

For an Isonychia spinner, same except use cream or light gray poly (or cream dry fly hackle) tied spent wing style instead of deer hair wing.

An Isonychia nymph dressing is very similar to a zug bug or prince:

Nymph hook Mustad 9672 (3xlong) size 10 or equivalent
Tail: 3 pheasant tail fibers (Iso nymphs have fringey tails)
Body: Peacock herl
Rib: Gold wire wound counter to herl
Wingpad: Black dyed wing from duck, goose, turkey etc. or black dyed raffia
Legs: amber colored (pheasant tail fibers, partridge, etc.)

If you?re new to tying there?s a lot of great stuff for beginning and intermediate tyers here on FAOL, and people on this board are very helpful, so feel free to ask more questions as they come up!

Good luck, and let us know how you do on the Isonychias. It?s a great hatch? one I can finally see!

peregrines

[Greg H]

Thoma Ames Jr. "Hatch Guide to New England Streams" is the one to get for Eastern waters, IMO.

http://www.thomasames.com/insects/guide/guide.htm

[the rod tosser]

you could just do a search for hatch charts allot of times they will give a fly to use to represent that hatch

example http://www.orvis.com/intro.asp?dir_i...ect=254&bhcp=1

[Gleason Cleveland]

Thanks to all of your responses and ai have looked into each and every one of them---Gleason

[pspaint]

I've done well with a basic grey parachute for the dun and a Rusty Comparadun for the spinner. For nymphs, i'll use either one of my own creations or a dark-ish brown nymph. The key seems to be, quick retrieves.