I had put away my fishing stuff in favor of the shotgun and waterfowling. However a change in the weather caused me to decide to give the warmwater fish one last try for the year. I packed my rod and tackle box in the truck and headed out to find some crappie and bluegill.
When I arrived at my destination I was dismayed to discover that I had left allmost all of my flies at home. I rumaged through my tackle box and found a small container of Montana Stone Flies that I use when fishing for brown trout on one of the local rivers. Since that was about all I had with me I decided to give them a whirl. After 3 hours of fishing I had caught maybe 20 crappie, 30 gills and 10 yellow perch. I know you it is common to catch warmwater fish on trout flies, but what amazed me was the vicious strikes I would get with this fly. More than one it would hit the water, sink a bit and then the line would just straighten out and the fish would hook itself. More than once a 7 inch gill would have the fly inhaled so deep that I had a difficult time removing it. All in all a pleasant experience.
My Montana Stone Fly Pattern: Hook: Mustad 9671, #8;
Body: Lead under and back 2/3 of hook black chenille and top 1/3 yellow chenille; Hackle: Three turns of black hackle palmered through the yellow chenille. (no tail or shell back). An easy tie and quite effective for me today.
Tim Anderson