Stonefly for the East

[Gandolf]

Hi Ray,

Birds Stonefly:

Hook: Mustad 9672, #4-8
Thread: Orange
Tail: Two stands of moose hair (black)
body: Orange Floss
Rib: Trimmed furnace saddle hackle*
Wing: Bucktail
Hackle: Furnace
Antennae: Two strands of black moose hair
* Trimmed to straight taper longer at front to shorter at rear, the hackle is about 1/3rd to 1/2 the hook gap at the front and maybe 1/8th the hook gap at the rear

This is shaped like a classic stone fly dry with the untrimmed hackle in front of the wing and the trimmed hackle behind the wing. If you tie a stimulator, and trim the palmered hackle really short, trimmed tapering with a straight linear taper from front to rear, you get the idea what the fly looks like. However, unlike a stimulator, it does have only two strand for a tail and has two strands as antennea.

The pattern is from the American Fly Tying Manual by Dave Hughes. It also contains a picture of the fly.

This is a classic salmon fly (giant stonefly) dry in the west. (This is only a western pattern because the salmon fly is a western insect, but of course as mentioned above, if tied in an appropriate eastern stonefly color and size it should work fine in the east.)

Regards,

Gandolf