I’ve been kick-netting bugs recently…into a net. And then photographing the bugs.
It’s a fun sub-hobby. One thing I notice: unlike the traditionally cylindrical Hare’s Ear or PT
nymph style type, in the real world there are also a lot of wide, flat rock-clinging nymphs.
And a fair number of those wide flat nymphs end up in trout stomachs. Many of those rock-clingers
are big nymphs too. Maybe that’s what trout are rooting out when you see them tailing like bonefish.
However. There is no good fly pattern for a wide flat rock clinger. Not that I’ve ever seen.
Typically the real nymphs are strongly two-toned with white or yellow on the bottom and a mottled brown top.
They all seem to have a slightly flattened abdomen, strongly flattened thorax and an extra-wide flat head.
The dorsal view (from the top) looks almost like an arrow head.
So I propose an informal contest of sorts. Let’s see who comes up the best new clinger nymph pattern,
with…let’s say…Thanksgiving as the deadline.
The winner gets an expenses paid trip to the Seychelles.
Paid for by…well. We’ll work on that part.
That’s a nifty pattern. But it’s clearly in a different category than “the set of all fly patterns that are practical to
tie and to fish with.”
So I amend the ground rules. You have to be able to make the fly, from start to finish, in less than a single day.
Less than an hour, for that matter. I mean. Well. Some flies I can crank out a dozen an hour.
Some are more like three per hour. And that’s about my limit. If I can’t make at least three of them in an hour’s time,
then I’m not interested. At least not as a fly to actually fish with.
Can you post a picture of one of the more common nymphs you are collecting, that we can try to emulate?
I recall Skip Morris gives a dragonfly nymph tutorial in one of his books…it has a broad flattened-shaped abdomen, with a 2-color woven body (dark on top, lighter beneath), etc. Perhaps modifying the pattern, but using similar techniques, to suit your smaller “clingers” might be the answer to your search?
This isn’t the world’s best photo, nor the Gallatin River’s widest, flatest nymph.
In fact this one came from the Beartrap Canyon on the Madison–now that I think about it–this
past April, during Blue Winged Olive time.
This photo doesn’t show the stark white bottom side of the nymph, moreover.
Most of the mayflies in the lakes around here are either clingers or burrowers. For the clingers I just tie a heavier thorax to provide the wider profile, then add a soft hackle collar for the legs as they are also more pronounced than other types of mayfly nymphs. I don’t have a picture at the moment or I would post one. I’ll see what I can come up with. Nice picture by the way.
How big of a bug are we talking about here? I have some ideas about a design for a big bug, but they won’t work too well for a smaller one. (Or I need to finally push myself over the edge and get better with the smaller diameter materials needed for it!) Are we talkin’ size 6 or 16 here?!
To win the expenses paid trip to the Seychelles, the fly has to be greater than or equal to
size #10 and less than or equal to size #18. And it has to embody the most creative combination
of stark realism with fast-and-easy-to-tie.
I’ll try to get out to the river again this weekend, with drift-net and camera in hand.
Trouble is it’s August, and most of this year’s crop of rock-clinging mayflies have already
hatched. Only the Baetis are yet to appear and they aren’t clingers. Well, we do get those big
white siphlonuris something-or-others in late September too. But they’re low-down-on-the-river
silt burrowers, with long cylindrical bodies. The flat rock-clinger mayflies are all long gone.
The baby rock-clinger nymphs have by now appeared, I think, from their semi-microscopic eggs.
But they won’t be big enough to really look at before late this fall.
That’s how it works.
This fly is a bit ragged. It’s the first one (a flat rock clinger nymph) off the vise.
Tied on a #16 scud hook, with brown open-cell foam body, Flashabou tails
and rubber legs.
In the winter 2001 issue of Fly Tyer, Steve Thornton wrote a good sized section on a Stone-Clinging Mayfly Nymph and how it’s tied. There’s a few variations on the way it’s colored, but a couple of his ties look extremely close to what you have pictured in your post here. His are made with Opossum guard hair for the tails, Yellow nymph skin for the abdomen and wing buds, with fine dubbing and Ostrich herl for the thorax and legs. The nymph skin is colored the way you want it after tieing.
Regards,
Mark
I’m pretty good with yesterday and sometimes even lost month. But 2001?
That will take some library skills.
What you said sounds right on the money however.
One thing I do know about rock-bottom stone clingers, in the Gallatin River near where
I live…they are among the biggest and tastiest-looking mayfly nymphs we have.
Green Drakes, for instance.
The ones in my post… I tied. I designed them in that I sat down with an idea and tied them up…but I haven’t done any research to see whether its “been done” before.
Recipe:
-#10 nymph hook
-black beadchain eyes
-3 elk hairs for the tail
-black yarn tied to the shank to build an underbody
-tan punch yarn wound up the shank for an abdomen
-3 prs rubber legs
-dark brown dubbing for the thorax/head (also wind around the beadchain eyes)
-a piece of tan dubbing tied underneath the head
-brown sharpie to darken the top of the tan abdomen
See the last two lines:
-a piece of tan dubbing tied underneath the head
-brown sharpie to darken the top of the tan abdomen
I apologize…any color of yarn could be used for the underbody, it was used to give the body some thickness and shape (the punch yarn is pretty thin stuff for a #10 fly). You might be able to get a wider/flatter profile if you tied a strand of yarn on each side of the shank before winding on the tan punch yarn over it (or a couple pieces of wire, as has been suggested previously). Also, using the sharpie to color the top of the punch yarn brown…you MIGHT be able to use tan dubbing for the head/thorax, and then just also color THAT with the sharpie, instead of adding the lighter dubbing under the head afterwards. Several ways to accomplish the same task. Whichever you choose, I think this is a fairly quick pattern to tie, which is nice.
Come to think of it, instead of the yarn underbody and punch yarn over-abdomen, you could probably just wind on tan yarn for the abdomen, and still color the top with the brown Sharpie. Ug! So many possible tweaks one could do! ;o)
