I noticed that many Pa streams have Little Black Stoneflys in March. Anyone have an effective nymph pattern? I was thinking a Prince Nymph in black or dark brown might work? Thoughts?

As long as its the right size and color...almost any nymph imitation should work...especially at that size...someone asks this every year, and we get 20 different patterns to choose from...did you try searching the site?

Just did a search..You should be able find what you are looking for
in here

Thanks Tom. I guess your memory is better than mine. This does seem to be an annual topic.

Maybe just more selective?

These early black and brown stones are spotty, but on certain streams they CAN be pretty good. It is as if they take the place of the BWO in the hatch scheme for streams that have them. They prefer nicer weather than the BWO, thank goodness.

Slim, almost sickly looking all black EHC # 18 for the little blacks, and slim # 16 or #14 trimmed hackle all brown EHC for the early browns for on top.

As mentioned in the thread from 2006, a simple black or brown flymph is a good choice for underneath. I would add that if dead drifting does not yield results, try good old fashioned swinging. That seems counterintuitve for stoneflies, but it sometimes works

I always have LBS's in my fly boxes, because I've found then on streams in different areas all year long. what I use for a dry fly pattern is a deer hair caddis in black and an all black henryville special. I also use a nymph, if they aren't taking the dry. It is important to know that the smaller flies, # 20 and # 18 hatch earlier, from about mid- January until mid- March, with the most likely hatches to be in February in the SE and progressively later the further north you go. In the Poconos the # 14 stones are still hatching in early April, and on the WB of the Perky the # 14s can still be present. The little guys hatch sporadically all year where there is good water quality.

here's an articulated pattern i developed probably going on 5 years now that i'm going to re-design for PA fishing.
probably going to make it about half the size and legs more flexible -

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heres a few my buddy developed - again with PA i'd slim down the profiles and consider a #14 to be the larget size

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Great pictures, neat flys, thanks for sharing!

Buffalo

Articulated Stone Fly Recipe

Hook: Front - #6 TMC 2457, Back - #12 TMC 200R (hook cut off)
Thread: Black 6/0
Tail: two (2) V style black goose biots and black nymph skin
Legs: black hollow body material with large ultra wire to shape
Abdomen: black squirrel dubbing
Wingcase: two (2) seperate sections of natural molted oak thin skin (cut to shape before tying in place)
Eyes / Head: bug eye stick melted down and head formed by wrapping thin skin from wingcase over bug eye stick

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I ended up settling on a pattern very much like the bottom one in the set. Easy to tie in smaller sizes. I also experimented with some similar ones but with a black wire body.

Those are some realistic patterns in my opinion. I tried to just tie up a quick one for my first one and heres what came out. Also i tried just tieing in the legs under the wire like you said tom and it worked out i suppose. The reason the legs are probably too far back on the stone is because i wanted to tie in 2 of them but it was just getting too hard to hold the other ones back and stuff so i gave up on the front legs and just left them there. My next pattern i think ill try to get the hard shell looking wing case type of thing on it.

EDIT: Ahh the antennas, knew i forgot something

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Just get some pheasant tail dyed black and tie a black PTN.

Mute,
flies looking better. for the legs, do a light dub of the body, then tie in the legs over the dub, redub the thread and wrap around the body to hide the thread wraps holding the legs.

Like they said...they look good but I would move the legs up closer to the thorax...don;t know too many bugs who's legs grow from their abdomen. Also if you use rubber legs instead of the tubing they will (for lack of a better term) squish between the wraps and you won't have to worry about the gaps you mentioned. You can buy the rubber legs or cut them from rubber bands. But it looks like its coming along well.