Stonefly patterns

[Ray Kunz]

What stonefly patterns and sizes are more common in New England?
I want to include one in my tying classes but the participants will be from more than my own local area. Thanks.

[dudley]

Ray
The stoneflies I see most often where I fish are the early black (and brown) stoneflies (14), golden stoneflies (10), and the yellow sallies .
The patterns I use to imitate them are your basic dubbed nymphs and not anything worth teaching in a class

[Flyrodde]

Giant Black Stones are usually in every stream I fish. One or two always seem to have freshly emerged on the rocks. Size 6-10. Although they usually don't occur in huge numbers, fish will still eat them all year long. I've never unhooked a fish that hasn't nearly swallowed the whole fly.

[peregrines]

Ray,

Good luck with your class. It'll be interesting to hear what flies you ultimately decide to put on the menu. This should be a decent list for most of New England and nearby areas like the dack's and Catskills...

Tiny Black Stone (Paracapnia) 18 (very early season hatch in Feb or March so not many people, including me, fish them, but they're probably out there with winter midges on water that allows fishing all year.)

Early Brown Stone (Strophopterex fasciata) 14 (late March- April) (There are specific patterns out there for dries, but a black or dark brown downwing caddis pattern, cdc caddis, black goddard caddis or even a black EHC in 14 or 16 is a good match in a pinch if fish are taking them on top.)

Early Black Stone (Taeniopteryx) 14-16 (late March- April) (same as above for dries)

Yellow Sally (Isoperla) 12-14 (Little Yellow Stone dry) (late April - early May)

Green Stonefly (Alloperla) 16 (Green Stimulator for a dry) (late May - early June but probably not as common as the Early Browns and Blacks or the Sallies.)

As Flyrodde mentioned, you?ll also find some big stonefly nymphs in a lot of NY and NE streams, particularly riffles, and because their life cycle is multi year, they?ll be in various sizes. This also means they?re available all year. On some waters, like the West Branch of the Delaware, they can be huge. The big mature nymphs typically crawl out of the water around the time the Green Drake hatch comes off and hide out in grass until well after dark. Fishing large dries 10PM and later can be an amazing experience.

On streams that have them, some of these nymphs (heavily weighted and with split shot if necessary to tick along the bottom) short lined thru riffles and fast runs as a searching technique is a good way to kill some time between hatches. It's a pretty easy technique for beginners since fish typically aren't too fussy in fast water and they seem to go out of their way to whack them. These are a real big Happy Meals:

Golden Stonefly (Acroneuria) up to size 8 4x long nymphs, (Yellow Stimulator for dries) (early-mid June)

Giant Black Stonefly (Pteronarcys) up to size 4-6 4x long nymphs (Salmonfly for dries) (early-mid June about the same time as green/brown drakes)

If you happen to have a copy of A. K. ?s Fly Box, the Golden Stone and Big Black Ugly nymphs are very good imitations and perhaps fairly easy to tie for a beginner after they've tied some other stuff. He includes a step-by-step tying sequence towards the back of the book.

For smaller stonefly nymphs, if this is a beginner class and you?re teaching GRHE or a similar dubbed, ribbed nymph with wing case, you could just bring in a couple examples of tied small stonefly nymphs and explain how the same techniques can be applied, with minor variations in technique (like the biot tail) and type/color of materials (v-rib, black dubbing) to tie them.

Hope this helps.

peregrines