stonefly nymph? photos

[fishaholic69]

never seen a nymph until today. looked down from fishing to see this thing floating by! after getting home and looking it up it looks like a stonefly nymph to me? what ya guys think?

[flybop]

Looks like an early black (or brown) stone fly that is in the process of emerging into a winged adult.

[fishaholic69]

it was on the top of the water. unless it was on some ice on the side of the stream and I broke it and it fell in?

[flybop]

Most stone flies crawl to the edge of the water and emerge into the winged adult out of the water. I have though seen many early black stone flies emerging mid stream on my old home stream back in Pa. What is often thought to be a "hatch" of early black stones is in fact the females flying out of streamside vegatation and returning to the water to lay thier eggs.

[fishaholic69]

thanks guys. I need to keep my eyes open for more.

[flyfshn76]

early black or early brown but that def is a stonefly the wingpads are the easiest way to tell.

[Bugsy]

Early stonefly nymph...maybe Taeniopteryx sp.

[Max]

It is an Early Black Stone fly nymph. They usually walk out of the stream along the bottom to molt into flying adults on land. After mating, the females return to the water surface as fluttering ovipositors.

The nymphs on top of the water get swept back into the stream as they reach the bank to crawl out.

This is a fun bug to fly fish with in late winter and early spring on Northeast and upper Midwest streams that have this bug. Peope refer to fishing the Early Black Stone "Hatch are actually dry fishing when egg laying adult females return to the water surface to deposit their eggs.