Little Black Stone?

[mute]

Saw a couple of these but not many flying at the stream today.

Guessing a black stone? Got more hits on other various flies though after i seen these and tried a few different stone patterns, all well. I seen a few skittering on the waters surface.

 

[jayL]

You got it right in the subject. Little Black Stone it is.

 

[afishinado]

There are three types of early stoneflies that hatch in the winter and early spring around here. The ones you may see earliest are called by fisherman “Tiny Winter Blacks”. They are also called “snowflies or “needleflies” by some, since they hatch as early as January or February and are often seen crawling on top of the snow. Also they are very slender, as thin as a needle. They are usually size 16-18.

A little later, usually in March, two other species of stonefly hatch. They are called by fisherman the “Early Black Stone” and “Early Brown Stone”. They are a little more robust and are usually a size 14-16. I would guess the photo is of an Early Brown Stone.

If you see them, try a nymph. Unless trout are rising to them, dry fly fishing may be tough in the cold water. Good luck.

 

[Christian]

I have some patterns for very nice looking black stones, but the best pattern is simply a bivisible style fly tied entirely with grizzly hackle. I grease the fly and leader and swing it. The first time I did this, I was amazed at the aggression of trout towards this presentation considering water temps around 40 degrees. Fish were coming out of the water on the take like they were chasing caddis in May. A very underrated hatch IMHO.

 

[jerseygeorge]

Christian - A good friend tied pretty much an identical pattern to what you describe. He did however do it on a lite wire scud/emerger hook. He started by tying a tail of black fine chenile. The tail is about the length of the hook shank. The end gets flamed to a point. Over that goes an antron/poly wing in tan that extends to about the tip of the tail. Then the grizzley hackle. With the short hook length the hackle is about 1.5 times wider than a normal dry, but not quite bivisible length.

This is a great fly that loves to be skated across the surface.

 

[Chaz]

Try a sparely tied #18 or # 20 black hairwing caddis, for the larger stones try a henryville special in all black or brown, again tied sparse.