Stonefly Patterns

[Jim Slattery]

Hazmat,
When tying the Stimulator you might want to try with the finished results to look something like this:


It is a little different from the commercialized version popular today. The differences being A dubbed head in front of the thorax hackle, a straight profile, little to no taper on the abdomen and thorax/head and the Wing tied in at the half way point of the hook, do not stack the wing but manually remove any wild hair or close to it. This will give your dressed fly a more realistic silhouette. Remember also that a lot of adult stone flies have a different color abdomen than their thorax/ head undersides. Hope this helps.
Jim

[oldschoolcane]

Anyone have any ideas related to a good "simple" pattern to imitate the midwestern stoneflys found here in the midwest? Midwest being Missouri, Tennessee. I'd like to identify a good pattern for the black and lighter versions of stonefly nymphs found here.

Thanks,

jman

[peregrines]

Haz-

Yeah, even though adult stones have wings that lie flat on their backs, when they're in the water they often look "buzzy" with wings fluttering, so in smaller sizes, up to 12, the elk hair caddis is a good imitation. For all practical purposes you can use the same pattern for adult Early Brown and Early Black stones (Taeniopteryx sp)in 14 and 16. The same pattern in size 20 actually imitates the Tiny Black Stone (Capnidae).

For larger adult stones I'd go with a beefier body as found in the Stimulators (Jim's looks GREAT!) or the Western Salmon fly types (with rubber legs for fishing the bigger ones at night).

Sizes that seem to work are Black Stone (Pteronarcys) in sizes 4 and 6 on 4x long hooks, Golden Stone (Acronuria) size 8 4x long, and Brown and Green Stones (Perlidae sp) in size 8 4x long.
These larger pattern can be dead drifted, but I like to fish them skittering around on the water. At night, fishing the big black ones I use rubber legs and lots of deer hair, short heavy leaders and really work them. (BTW,it's a good idea to have a head lamp with you to be able to turn on if you need it to find your way around etc.) Also watch out for beavers.... I had one swim right up right behind me on the west branch and slap his tail.... scared the bejeesus out of me.)

Nymphs are in the same sizes, but I don't spend much effort on super realistic patterns, since they're easily lost to rocks (and tree branches in my case). I lay a u shaped bend of wire along the sides to flatten the body (u near the eye). I usually tie them "production style" at a dozen or so at a time, and tie in the biots for the tail and lead or lead sub wire on all 12 and then coat with a couple of coats of head cement and let dry over night. Next day, I'll finish them with a yarn body, ribbing, one wing case of turkey or dyed goose wing (even though stoneflies have 2, I figure trout can't count) and some hackle or legs.

I pretreat whole goose or turkey quills with the "fix it" stuff artists use to spray over pastels and charcoal drawings to prevent smudges. You can find it at art stores. (Other folks use hairspray for the same purpose). This helps hold the quill together when cutting and keeps it together on the hook.

Next I wrap the yarn and rib for the abdomen roughly half way up the shank and tie in one end of the quill for the wing case and bind to one eye length of the eye leaving room for he head. The unbound part of the quill is pointed towards the rear of the hook.

Once the quill for the case is tied in (but before it's folded over), I tie in a partridge feather (for smaller nymphs) or a hen hackle for the larger ones. I tie the tip near the eye dull side up, and bind down with thread back to the end of the thorax. I apply some coarse dubbing to the thread, and work my way back up to the head. Pull the hackle forward and tie down. The barbs should be flowing back on each side of the hook glossy side up. Then pull the wing case forward and tie off, finish the head and whip. Once I've tied up a bunch, I apply epoxy, or a couple of coats of head cement to the back of the wing case. I don't fuss with antennae, eyeballs, license plates etc.

Sorry for the long explanation, pics would be a lot simpler, but I'm a bit of a luddite. Hope you can make sense of this.

Journeyman-

Sorry I don't know the hatches in your specific area. But, here's a great link for a hatch chart for Montauk state park in Missouri listing mayflies, caddis and stoneflies, their common and scientific names, time of year/day they come off, sizes and names of the nymph and dry patterns to imitate them.

You can search FAOL for tying instructions or google on the pattern. Rather than tie them all up, you might want to check in with your local fly shop to see which ones pop in your area.

http://www.missouriscenicrivers.com/hatchchart.html

Hope this helps. Good luck guys.

peregrines

[hazmat]

Great information again, Peregrines. Thanks.

[Quill gordon]

Haz,
I think you will have the most success fishing a nymph pattern.
I tie them in brown, brown/black, and black.
This link will show you the basic pattern.
These are the first patterns I try at the start of the season, besides the 'GRHE'......

http://www.fishingwithflies.com/KaufmannStoneflies.html

[flyfishfairwx]

Hay I used to fly fish in New Brunswick and have seen lots of size 6-12 black stones (nymph) in some of the larger rivers. I believe just about any suggestive black stone nymph would work. As long as it gets to the bottom of the river. Hope New Brunswick is east enough for ya...

[Darryl]

I'm from SW PA and I've got to second everyone's opinion on the Stimulator. It work wonderfully for me. In fact, looking back on my fishing journal from last year, it was the most productive pattern for me.

Of course the sizes I use this pattern in are far smaller than they would use in the west. I tye it on the TMC #200R Hook down to size #18. The #18's imitate a black stonefly and a small green stonefly that hatch early in the Spring on a few streams here. I also use this fly as a searching pattern throughout the year. Because of it's buoyancy it is also a great fly to use to drop a nymph off of and use as an "indicator", which I do quite often. I usually tye Stimulator in sizes #10 through #18 in various colors. As an attractor I'm particularly fond of the "Royal" version - it's very productive and besides that, it's just a really pretty fly (pretty as far as stoneflys go anyway!). I use the #10's in late summer as a very effective Hopper pattern and tied in #12 in black it becomes a great cricket.

Hope this helps some.

-Darryl

[oldschoolcane]

Quill,

The Kaufman Stone pattern with the link you provided has a contact for the dubbing but its not current, can you suggest a possible supplier for the Golden Stone dubbing mentioned?

Thanks,

jman

[Quill gordon]

Journeyman,

I use whatever synthetic dubbing I have, usually 'Hareline' or 'Universal Vise Corp.
The tyer C. Stewart Denton has his email listed on that page. You might try that.
Perhaps one of the sponsors here has it or you could try this place.
http://castlearms.com/fly_tying.html

Best wishes...

[oldschoolcane]

Thanks for the info regarding the dubbing, will try the Hareline.

jman