Sunday Stonefly pattern and testing

[mike_richardson]

I had a busy weekend and Saturday was spent at the PA State Turkey Calling Contest. I took a 2nd place in the amateur division and Corbin took 4th.

Sunday was more of relaxed day, so I asked my wife if she minded if I hit the stream for an hour or two while our twins were napping. She said yes so I hammered out 8 flies to test out for my trip.

I tied up a few olive scud dubbed nymphs. A few brown hares ear plus, nymphs, and 1 large size 8 stone fly.

A lot of guys like to use tiny stuff this time of year but I throw standard size 14-16 nymphs, and large stone flies for anchors.

While I was tying I had Corbin coaching me on while he played on my phone.

I decided on doing kind of a 2 tone stone fly.

RECIPE:
hook: 2xl streamer/nymph hook size 8
tail: brown goose biot
ribbing: small round French ribbing in gold
body: hares ear plus chocolate brown
wing case: turkey tail feather fibers
legs: Lively Legz, size medium in brown
thorax: hares ear plus #1 natural
bead: 3 mm tungsten bead
antenna: brown goose biot

The trout were just hammering that stone yesterday. I caught 4 others but my phone had died. All wild browns, with a beauty between 12-14". Only one hold over bow.

I believe two hit the olive nymph. I need to work on it. I love the color it is, and how it looks, but the scud dub is a had fiber, and longer strands. It came apart a bit when the teeth of the trout got to it. Back to the drawing board.

I would say that the majority of the larger fish I catch in winter come from bigger anchor stone fly patterns. This one was working yesterday.

Don't be afraid to chuck big nymphs. The trout are hungry. Even the little guys were hammering it.

Thanks for the look

 

[GenCon]

Mike, good story, fish and flys. And I agree big stonefly nymphs are hard to beat.

GenCon

 

[PennypackFlyer]

That's awsome. I tie one of my own creations called the PennyPack Cheerleader. It's a nymph - and it really gets hammered.
And at the same time I have a box of "Wannabees" that I have tested and had no results. So the question comes to mind, "How many times do you test a fly/nymph/streamer/etc before you figure out it ain't working for what your fishing for.

 

[mike_richardson]

LOL I feel ya. I hate when you think one of your creations is just going to knock them dead, and you take it out anxious to see take after take only to come up empty handed. LOL

I am fortunate to be set up with Hareline so I probably have 100 different colors of dubbing to use, and 6-8 different colors of pheasant tails. I have noticed that even something as different as bead head color can make a world of difference.