Made a few changes to the dry version of Cal Bird’s stonefly (here in salmonfly colors). Replaced the floss body with foam and the squirrel tail wing with elk hair, to improve floatation, and the fragile moose hair tails with paint brush bristles; supposed to have antennae out the front, which I forgot (and don’t miss). The palmered body hackle is a variation on the original (tied in 2 sections along the midshank); just liked the way it looked.
hook - Tiemco 5212 #6
thread - UTC 140 orange
tails - paint brush bristles
body - 1mm foam orange
rib - tying thread tag end
body hackle - hackle brown (trimmed short)
wing - elk hair
hackle - brown
Part 1
mash barb, attach thread at 75% mark and wrap back to point above barb (leave the tag end long)
tie in foam strip, apply a little Super Glue to the shank and bind down foam
take one wrap of foam and tie down; tie in tails
wrap foam forward, tie down and trim
trim hackle and tie in
palmer hackle in close turns to the hook bend; trap with thread tag end, wrap forward as rib, tie off and trim hackle end
Great instruction and photos! Two questions from a near rookie: 1. what does SHHAN stand for? Tried looking it up here and couldn’t find it. 2. what color combos would look good (if any) as a trout fly?
When I mentioned salmonfly in the intro, I meant that as the name of the bug, the big, orangeish stonefly that’s found out west
not a fly to fish for salmon. The 3 big stones I’ve fished for trout out there are these, golden and skwalas (kind of a dirty olive/yellow); haven’t cracked the nocturnal stonefly yet so no info. For the golden stone, I’d use goldenrod foam (tan in a pinch) and either grizzly dyed tan or ginger/grizzly mix hackle. For the skwala, I had good luck with olive foam (even though it didn’t really match the body of the fly) in this pattern
I’d guess for the Bird you could use dun hackle for the body and dun/grizz for the head (olive dyed grizzly would work, too).
Looks great - how would you compare this to the stimulator? Sits lower and as you say more float challenged because of the clipped hackle? Looks a bit more impressionistic than the stim.
JW
Compared to a Stimi, even with the foam body, it’s not going to stay on top for long (even when fished in the relatively softer water along the bank); compared to the real thing, it seems a bit skinny. I tied the Bird for fun and will play around with it when I get the chance but, for “serious” fishing (kind of an oxymoron) during a hatch, I want something that’s going to catch fish and stand up to some abuse; nothing worse than having to change flies when the fish are up and willing because your fly won’t stay up or is reduced to thread and a bit of hair. I thought the Rogue’s I tied would fit that bill but they proved to be a bit fragile
this one proved to be a lot more durable, floated like a cork (but stayed low on the water) and caught fish
Carnage version
My Stimulators, not the pattern but the ones I tie, wouldn’t make the cut either; for whatever reason, mine are never the high floaters that everyone else seems to come up with, and I’ve wrapped half a rooster on the hook to keep them on top of the water. In salmonfly sizes especially, I find it a lot easier to keep that big piece of iron up where I can see it with foam rather than hackle and floatant.
Thanks for this. I like a local fly, the ck nymph. One problem I have, both with my tie and the ones I buy in the fly shop, is the palmered feather will come loose after a few fish. Your use of the tag end as a rib may take care of this. http://www.ngatu692.com/Flies/CKNymph.jpg
The Satsop Stone (FOTW July 2, 2012) is my personal favorite. it was born from a blend of the Birds and Stim, and has proven over the years to be the best of both worlds for me coast-to-coast. On a few waters in the PNW it was the fly that I fished solely throughout the year.
