Fish sense, applied in the field, is what the old Zen masters would call Enlightenment: simply the ability to see what's right in front of you without having to sift through a lot of thoughts and theories and, yes, expensive fishing tackle."John Gierach
The Millers River is loaded with Stoneflies. When I first started fishing this river back over 30 years ago I was absolutely astonished by the sheer number of stonefly casings found on the rocks along and in the river. Not to be confused with the damsel fly (that's another story) the Stone becomes the main insect for trout hunters from late May through June on the lower Millers from Wendell Depot downstream. It's never been the star of the show upstream in Royalston (Bears Den) like it is miles below.
(photo by Thomas Ames, Jr.)
The Stonefly nymph is more valuable to the fly fisher than the Dry version. Any stimulator/small muddler type will get the job done imitating the egg laying adult. The nymph is one of those aquatic insects that hatches not by rising through the water column but by climbing rocks that protrude above the waters surface or rocks along the shoreline just like damsel flies, many caddis and Isonychia nymphs. This environment is characterized by riffles. Fish the riffles and pocket water in late May and June by dead drifting this fly on a short leash!!
I've featured some stones in the past but my favorites always fall back on a larger nymph that has a yellow/brown cast to it. No need to go nuts with hackle and other things when building stones and I've found that good old ostrich works well imitating gills and legs.
Hook - size 10 nymph hook with some weight added.
Tail - some partridge fibers
Body - I use a synthetic yellow dubbing with some sparkle built into the fibers. Synthetic holds up well to rocks and trout
Gills - light brown ostrich palmered around the full body or by the thorax. I prefer the thorax style.
Wing Pad - I've used everything from duck quill, turkey quill, bunches of pheasant tail fibers and so on. The one above has a pad of Thin Skin which also works (golden oak is the color of the thin skin)
Added Feature - Run a brown sharpee down the back of this fly and you'll have created much of the color scheme of this insect.
All the streams are getting into good shape. Get out there!!
Ken
6 comments:
Pat's Rubberlegs has replaced all my other stonefly patterns. Looks cheesy but it works!
Ken, nice looking stonefly. looks and sounds simple. Thanks for sharing....Phil
Hi Ken- I tie many versions including yours from size 16 to 12 in black, brown, olive and grey. Weighted and not. I’ve had my best luck casting unweighted imitations in shallow water close to the bank when the sun is low or it’s overcast.
Dean F,
That's when the stoneflies start moving.
Ken
Hi Ken,
I fished the Swift on Saturday April 22 in the afternoon. Other than one angler, I had the Cady Lane area to myself. The water was woefully low and slow (the lowest I've seen in my five years fishing there). I know some anglers like the flow at 52 cfs, but for my liking, it is just too slow, especially if the annual spawning is over. It was down at least 18" from the fall and lots of undercut banks, of which I was previously unaware, were exposed. The brookies have again disappeared: neither I nor the other angler saw a single one, and I was there from 2PM to 6:30. I suspect they'll be back in full force in a couple more weeks. There was almost no surface action whatsoever: I saw just 2-3 rises. I managed a fat 18" rainbow on a size 18 peacock/orange soft hackle and 16" rainbow on a size 10 black/yellow/white ghost streamer. Lost another fish when he broke off my 6X tippet and absconded with my size 20 Hare's Ear (poor Surgeon's knot on my part).
Tight lines to all, Tom from Boston
Tom from Boston,
That 52 cfs is pretty close to the average flow for the Swift on that date. The brookies usually leave the upper river after Fall spawning and then go down to the deep water around CadyLane for the Winter and most of the Summer and then go upstream in the Fall again.
Ken
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