Isonychia nymph and adult patterns

[Wmass]

Can anyone help me with a few good patterns for both the adults and nymphs? A new river I have been fishing is crawling with these guys and my few nymphs dont seem to be cutting it.

 

[whheff]

Here is a nymp patter you can try. You can also check out the link below.







http://www.landbigfish.com/articles/default.cfm?ID=1847

 

[MKern]

Here is one I tie, but it takes some time (each segment is done individually).

Ostrich for tail and gills.
Dubbing.
Partidge legs.
and Poly yarn for the wingcase.


I do tie an easier one with just ostrich hearl and trimmed on the bottom.

 

[jdaddy]

I always like Aarons ties. I like that one but the Ostrich seems to make that abdomen a little thick compared to the other ISO nymph ties I have saw/bought (have not tied yet).

Sometimes you just can't strip those nymphs fast enough. 4x tippet all the way.

 

[JeffK]

My favorite nymph during iso season is a Prince nymph - seems to work better for me than the more specialized ones. When the fish are shallow chasing the nymphs crawling to the side and swinging nymphs to the side works best sometimes I lose plenty of flies. Then I use a simple soft hackle wet with three peacock herl tail, a peacock herl body, and a brown hackle collar. Have had that work just as well as fancier flies too.

For those that want to go old school, the traditional slate drake nymph is the Leadwing Coachman wet fly (or maybe a Coachman if there is some color to the water).

For a dry I like a parachute pattern with a deer hair post. Other posts work fine too, but I like deer hair on larger flies.

Don't forget the spinner!!! Iso spinners are a great late evening fly from June through October. Rusty spinner is OK, but soemthing a lighter darker and oliver works for me.

 

[troutslammer]

size 12 hook , grizzly tail , tie in a stripped white hen hackle feather and tie in , dub the body with purple ice dub , pull the hackle up to make a strip up the back and tie in ,, is what i do and they seem to work for me , same thing but add part. hackle for a emerger , i only worry about those and the spinner , size 12 rusty with poly wings

 

[outsider]

I don't bother stripping hackle feathers anymore for the white "stripe" on the top. I just use a white heavy tying thread .

 

[midnightangler]

For surface fishing, Paul Weamer's truform emerger works great as an iso imitation. The standard comparadun will work well also. Fish do seem to love them.

I've tied and used a variety of nymph imitations, and I don't think it makes a lot of difference to the fish. I've been getting a lot of fish on isonychia nymphs this week, and I switched up imitations a few times to see if it made a difference. It didn't. How you fish the nymphs will make a much bigger difference than the imitation itself.

 

[jayL]

midnightangler wrote:
How you fish the nymphs will make a much bigger difference than the imitation itself.

Where do I put the quarter in to hear more? :lol:

 

[troutslammer]

iso soft hackle seems to outperform a nymph for me atleast

 

[midnightangler]

Where do I put the quarter in to hear more

I usually start with basic upstream nymphing techniques. I try to make sure the fly gets down on the bottom and go for a natural drift. Using this as a basic starting point, there are a bunch of ways to introduce action, which can be important since isonychia do dart about quite a bit:

1) Let the fly drift downstream of you so that the current drags it off the bottom, making the fly "swim" up through the water column

2) Make the fly swim through the water column to the surface by lifting the rod - this can be done in many different ways:

(a) pulling the fly downstream to the surface in a smooth motion (kind of like an over-eager version of czech-nymphing)
(b) pulling the fly across the current in a steady motion
(c) either (a) or (b) but with a slightly jerky motion
(d) any combination of (a),(b) or (c) with changing speeds

3) strip the nymph like a streamer.

It can be worthwhile to experiment a bit to determine what will work best on a given day. I expect it may not matter a whole lot if they are really keying on the nymphs. As long as you can detect the strikes you'll catch fish. I almost always catch more fish close to the bottom, but trout will chase isonychia just about anywhere in the water column. Once you have your fly on the bottom, you can (and should) fish the imitation all the way to the surface before you pick up to cast again.

 

[jayL]

Great stuff. Thanks. I plan on giving it a go tomorrow.

 

[AaronJasper]

If you are going to fish isonychia sub-surface be sure to have some very specific imitations like Tony's fly and some generic patterns like the prince as mentioned. There are times that the imitative fly will out perform the generic nymph and vice versa. Sometimes fishing pressure and water conditions play a role in which one works and at what time. However, there has been many a time when the water was clear and you thought that the old Prince wouldn't work and it did. So if you see isonychia hatching and the fly that you have on isn't working change it to either a specific of generic nymph depending on what you have tied on. I have found that works more often than it doesn't.