I’m curious to know if the nymph tiers/fishers here tie and fish albino nymphs.
If so, would you please post a picture of your flies.
I used to do so many years ago. I remember first concluding that since mayflies can molt as many times as 20-30 times before reaching dun stage, that means there are probably many white or very light colored nymphs in the water at any given time.
Interested in hearing of anyone’s recent experience with this.
I borrowed this photo of a mayfly nymph just after a molt, courtesy of Troutnut.com:
I believe this is a photo of the mayfly instar, borrowed from the website Troutnut.com:
Newly molted stoneflies are even lighter than that. I’ve watched a guy nymphing riffles (something I seldom do) coming up with fish after fish on a snow-white stonefly nymph. Of course in newly-stocked streams, they’re also good imitations of pieces of bread, but that wasn’t the case in this instance. (And don’t forget sucker spawn.) If you enjoy nymph fishing, there’s plenty of reasons to carry white nymphs.
A really great series of photos of a molting stonefly are available at “troutnut.com” ( a tremendous site for insect info).
Here is one pic from that series, showing the recently molted stone and the ecoskeleton left behind.
I would think that would be the nymph equivalent of a soft shell crab to fish.
A cream hairs ear with copper wire ribbing does quite well. 
Exactly! Convenient and easy to digest.
The fact that they stand out like a sore thumb against the bottom doesn’t hurt either.
For mayflies?
I’ve heard that stoneflies are only in that phase (color) for a very short time. That’s why most people don’t tie them.
No Sir, for Mayflies or Stones. Tied #8-10 with PT tail and a turkey wincase and cream Hareline.
I’m sure mother nature doesn’t leave them that color for too long.
Ralph,
Ok, not the basic hares ear nymph then…
No…more on the lines of a Borger Hares Ear. Or a larger version of my C2C nymph. Great for steelhead too.
Byron,
Here is the pattern I was talking about. Always called it a Light Hares Ear. I tie it in about 1/2 dozen color phases as an all-purpose nymph. I did well with the stone version years ago on Steelhead and Trout in Washington State. Fished as a Pale Stone. And while I carry the mayfly version in my box today, I can’t say its a very big producer. In truth though, I really only fish it when I’m struggling and cycling through colors hoping to hit something. However, tied in Ginger Hareline with a Turkey wingcase (C2C Nymph) its one of my most productive nymphs. Only difference now is the Bug Bond vs SHHAN on the wingcase.
Nice, Schweibert had a fly something along those lines. I believe it was one of his nymphs in Matching the Hatch. I’m not home so cannot check, I’m sure there was no wire probably thread.
Would be interesting to document the effectiveness of such a “fair” pattern over a natural colored Hare’s Ear…
What about using a lighter colored wing case? Or, more germane, perhaps sans wing case?
For an albino stone, wouldn’t you have just two forked tails?
When it works I’ve found it to be the hot pattern for the day. I tie them in black, brown, grey, ginger and cream. I’ll cycle through them early on and find the shade they are looking for. With steelhead especially, you never really know why. LOL You just throw them what they want. Normally it would be fished behind a heavy beadhead.
You could use a biot tail. I doubt it would make much of a difference though. With a PT tail you get movement, unlike a split biot tail. It’s an all-purpose nymph for me, but I figure it is probably getting taken as “new” stone…or molted nymph in the larger size.
When specifically targeting stones I go to a more traditional style pattern, with biot tail and multi-wingcase.
As I said, I don’t tie or fish nymphs a lot anymore, but, perhaps something on this order might work?
I’m sure it would. 
