Went scouting the Henry’s Fork this afternoon to see what flies might be in order on the near term.
The salmonflies have been emerging the past few days. Had the good fortune to get a couple decent pics, which I thought might be of interest from a fly tying point of view.
First, the fishies’ point of view.
And, the fly fishers’ view.
Finally, a pic of where they came from. Complete with a drift boat and some fly fishers.
John
Great pics John , thanks for sharing. The detail in the salmonfly photo’s do give a few new ideas as to the approach of tying them.
Hey John, they are great pics of the little beasties - I have a pattern for them but always thought the pattern was too big, now from what is shown - they are spot on. Thanks for that!
Jeanne
Getting good bug pics is almost as fun as fish pics! 
Nice looking critter you got there.
Hi John,
Great photos! The underside colour would be very closely matched by onion dye! The wool I dyed would match colour wise but might soak up too much water for a good floater. I wsa thinking of something like an onion body with a black hackle wound wide for half way along the body (3 turns) with an upper wing of turkey tail feather and some black deer hair antenae might produce a close immitation. It might float on good stiff hackles and the wing though? Anyway, really nice shots.
"The wool I dyed would match colour wise but might soak up too much water for a good floater. "
Well then change it to resist taking up the water.
Easy.
Soak the finished fly in
3M Scotch Guard and allow to dry completely.
Now, what was the problem again …
Kind regards,
UB
This might be the perfect fly to imitate those big boys…
Here is a flock of them…
God Bless JC and LF…
Since there are no salmon in the Henry’s Fork then this would more accurately be a Stonefly, correct?
a fine flock at that!
same thing just a nickname
http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/53/Stonefly-Pteronarcyidae-Salmonflies
Norman -
Greg Thomas’ article in Fly Fisherman magazine ( your second link ) really nails it. Thanks for the link.
John
The bug is named for it’s salmon pink/orange color, not because of the presence, or absence, of salmon in the river.
Regards,
Scott
Greg, good call, but there are so many varieties of stoneflies that we locals have taken to naming them with such as Yellow Sallies(very small), Golden Stones(medium), and Salmonflies for the big pteronarcys californica stoneflies. The locals also call them “Troutflies”, but the monicer “Salmonfly” refers to these big bugs pictured in John Scott’s photos.
Here’s a pic of one I took a week or so ago:
You can see how really big they are and the trout just love them.
I also thingk the salmon reference may have to do with the orange/salmon coloration on these bugs, but no reference to salmon fishies.
John, thanks for the great pics. One thing I noticed from your pics is how far back and centered the thorax/leg area is. Most patterns tie the legs far forward of this reference, myself included. Perhaps I need to rethink my current patterns and try something new.
flyfishfairwx, those are some great looking ties for this bug. Can’t wait to try tying some of those myself. Well done.
Kelly.
Been thinking about a new fly since I posted the pics of the fishies’ point of view. Got to playing around at the vice tonight. Decided to try doing a furled extended body ( f.e.b. ) similar to the f.e.b. Western Green Drake that I tied last summer, using small rubber legs tied to the f.e.b. for tails rather than the moose body hair I had used on the W.G.D.
The first fly came out okay for a prototype, but was rather difficult to tie, especially tying the rubber leg tails to the f.e.b. Then it occurred to me that I might be able to incorporate the rubber legs in the f.e.b. in the same way that I incorporated a thread into the f.e.b. for the Western Green Drake.
These are pics of the method used on the Green Drake.
Comb a piece of tying thread into a strand of antron yarn.
Catch one end of antron strand without thread and one end with thread.
Twist clips in opposite directions with thread emerging near middle of yarn.
When antron is ready to furl, pull on thread and let antron furl. Twist furled antron in direction of furl to tighten it.
For the Henry’s Fork Furled Salmonfly, I used two strands of dark olive antron and one strand of burnt orange antron to get a coloration as close as possible to the natural given the materials I have on hand. Instead of thread, I incorporated two strands of small rubber leg material. For the results, and more on finishing the fly, see Part 2.
NOTE - see post number 26 for revisions in the tying sequence.
First, a pic from the fishies’ point of view.
Next, a pic from the fisher’s view.
After I tied the f.e.b. securely to the hook shank, I separated the tail rubber legs and trimmed them to length. Next, I separated the remaining rubber leg material from the antron yarn and used those two strands for the hind legs.
Then I went back and tied in a piece of dark brown foam for the main body, keeping the rest of the antron material forward of that tie in point. After the foam was tied in, I moved the tying thread forward to the position of the middle leg set. Tied in another length of two rubber leg strands, pulled two strands back, separated them and tied them into position for the middle legs.
Next, I wrapped the tying thread forward to secure the remaining length of the two strands of rubber leg material to the shank, up to the point of the front legs. After tying the front legs in so they would point forward, I wrapped the thread forward again, and added a couple more pieces of rubber leg material for the antennae. Next, I pulled the antron yard bundle forward to add color to the underbody, and tied it off behind the antennae tie in point.
Pulled the foam strip over the antron bundle and tied it down, leaving a long tag to be pulled back and tied in as the final step. The next to last step was tying in a dark deer hair wing. After the deer hair was tied in, I pulled the foam tag end back over the deer hair and tied it down. Took a couple five turn whip finishes on top of the final foam tie in point and applied a liberal coat of water based head cement. The final step was trimming the foam tag.
I’m not entirely satisfied with how the fly turned out, but I do have some confidence that it will catch trouts as tied. I think I can find materials in better colors, and a longer wing, with elk hair, or maybe dark black bear hair, probably would improve the fly. On the positive side, it should float well and present a good silhouette and lots of action to the fish. The best part of this exercise was creating the f.e.b. with the tail material incorporated in it. That technique will find a number of other applications, for sure.
So much for tying. Hopefully, I can find some trouts tomorrow on the Henry’s Fork and see if they will be duped by this f.e.b. H.F. Salmonfly. With a little luck finding some fishies, and presenting this fly properly, I just might have some fish pics to add to the thread tomorrow evening ??
John
Hey Tim,
It is as much fun and you can always count on not being skunked.
A stretch of the Henry’s Fork that I have not fished before.
The Henry’s Fork Furled Salmonfly looked better here than on the vice.
And it looked even better here than on the grip.
Just to be sure, I got another one with a different angle.
Not very many naturals around this stretch just below the confluence with Warm River, but a fellow who also fished it yesterday did tell me that the fish were coming up for salmonfly adults yesterday.
Over the course of two hours, I saw only two fish come up for naturals. I landed two bows, had another five that hit the fly but didn’t hook up, and had a rather large bow come close but refuse it. All in all, a successful test of this pattern. The color looked much closer to the natural when wet, the fly kept on floating largely due to the foam, and the fly was visible, most of the time.
John
May have to rethink the size of the hook. REE had some problems hooking fish with a furled extended body October Caddis that I sent to him to fish on the Selway at the Idaho Fish-in last fall. His hook up rate was much better when he retied the flies on a hook with a longer shank.
Maybe the nicknames are better idea. Here in the east (either Ontario or Connecticut were I fish) we have them too, but never in abundance (although I have seen plenty shucks on the rocks of the Ausable, NY). The nymphs are more effective than the adults around here so we just call them Big Black ones and Golden and mostly it is the black noes like Kaufmann?s that will be fished. I have only once seen fish eat adults, so tracking the hatch around here is not worth it, and the nicknames are less common too.
Greg -
The salmonfly hatches in the West are a BIG deal, along with a number of other stonefly hatches like skwalas, golden stones, little yellow stones.
While the nymphs of these stoneflies are more productive over the course of the year, the adults are a major event, though short lived for the salmonflies and rather sporadic for the skwalas. The golden stones are around for a good while in early to late summer, and the yellow sallies provide dry fly fishing daily on a number of the western rivers over the course of the summer.
Locally, the two big salmonfly hatches are on the Henry’s Fork and the South Fork. The Henry’s Fork hatch comes off earlier due to the warmer water temps. The hatch on the South Fork will start in a few weeks. The only bigger hatch on the South Fork is the drift boat hatch that accompanies the salmonfly hatch.
The golden stones are probably a more reliable, consistent hatch out here than the big bugs. BUT when a trout goes for a salmonfly dry, it is usually a pretty aggressive strike - something that for sure will bring people back for more of that kind of action. The salmonfly hatch also presents a challenge which the other stonefly hatches don’t. It’s a moving target, on a daily basis. That just adds to the excitement of a good day with dries.
John
Today is the sixth anniversary of the day I caught my first fish on a fly - a Henry’s Fork rainbow.
I spent some time refining the H.F. Furled Salmonfly, not that the fly looks better, or will necessarily fish better.
To begin with, I went to a standard dry fly hook with a longer shank than the original. We’ll see if that improves the hook up ratio.
One problem with the original was the tendency of the tails to point off in one direction together, rather than split. That was solved by teasing out a single tail on each side of the antron strands before furling. Takes a bit longer, but the effort is worth it to get more natural tails.
I also beefed up the body, going to two strands of burnt orange antron yarn to match two strands of PMD Shuck antron yarn. This change gives the body a bit more orange color. Not sure I like this refinement - the body seems a bit bulky and there may be too much orange - but we’ll see how the fishies respond.
Finally, I went from small rubber legs to fine rubber legs, which gives a more natural look to the tails, legs, and antennae. It should also enhance movement / action of the fly in the water.
While I was sitting at the tying desk thinking about how far I have come these past six years, it kept coming back to me what a HUGE part of my development as a fly fisherman, a reasonably competent fly tier, and a “beginner” rod builder FAOL and the Fraternity of Fly Fishers, as represented by the member of the Bulletin Board, have been in how I approach and execute on the trout streams I fish.
With that in mind, I decided to rename this salmonfly and call it “JC’s Salmonfly” as my tribute to Jim, and what he and Deanna have created and sustained over the years here at FAOL.
John