Will the real Sulphur nymph please step forward?

[ian_brown]

What color are Sulphur nymphs? I know this seems like a stupid question, but I've seen two completely different answers.

1. Mary Kuss, of the Sporting Gentleman, told me that they are a sort of darkish mahogany color with just a touch of purple. Orvis.com sells a sulphur nymph in this color, which they call "claret."

2. In his article on Sulphurs last year, Eric Stroup had a recipe for a yellow sulphur nymph, and I believe Jonas at the Feathered Hook ties them in that color as well.

What's going on? These seem like two different bugs to me.

Here's my hunch, based on two minutes of research on troutnut.

The invaria nymph looks pretty darn yellow, while the dorothea nymph looks much darker, but with flecks of yellow.

 

[tomgamber]

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/11/Mayfly-Ephemerella-invaria-Sulphur

 

[jayL]

I've fished the yellow Jonas sulphur nymph in tandem with a pheasant tail on spring and caught fish. I've often been confused by this color variation as well, so I carry both. Before I got those yellow ones from Jonas, I always used dark pheasant tails with success. It might not matter that much.

 

[littlejuniata]

Here in Cental Pa there are two great Spring Sulphur hatches, the large Sulphur nymph is nearly a chocolate brown, the small Sulphur nymph is a light carmel color. The small fly provides the best and longest hatch, but the fish ger really tough to catch on top sometimes!

 

[troutbert]

Here's my suggestion. Call a fly shop in one of the sulphur areas that sells locally tied flies, not flies from Sri Lanka. For example; Flyfishers Paradise or Spruce Creek Outfitters. Tell them what you're trying to do. Buy a few of their sulphur nymphs and buy the dubbing mix they recommend to match that color.

Then tie your nymphs to match the proven ones from the shop. Then next season, pick up some rocks on the streams to see the real sulphur nymphs, and do some fine tuning if you want.

They vary a lot in color. From dark brown to medium tan to a sort of tannish amber olive. The yellowish color is mostly on the underside, where the yellow color of the dun shows through. The wing pads get very dark, near black, just before emergence.

I have not seen CLARET on sulphur nymphs. But that doesn't mean a claret nymph won't catch fish. It's worth a try! 🙂

If you want to keep is simple, use that nice tannish colored fur you find on a Hares Ear mask. That's close enough and you will catch plenty of fish.

Sizes 14, 16 and 18. On most streams, #16 will be the one that is most useful.

Enjoy!

 

[littlejuniata]

Great advice Troutbert, here is a picture of the nymphs of the best Sulphur hatch on the Little Juniata River, I think these guys hatched not too long after I took the pic, they are on a small piece of black asphalt. The color is pretty accurate http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2064/11513716/20553543/348670147.jpg

 

[troutbert]

Wow Little J, that's a lot of nymphs on one rock! I agree that the color is pretty accurate.

I'm not sure what you call that color. Sort of tan/light olive/amber. I'm pretty sure that it's not CLARET though!

The undersides of these nymphs is often pretty yellowish. I tried to tie a sulphur nymph that was yellowish on the underside and that tannish amber whatever color on top. But that was beyond my feeble skills as a flytyer. If anyone can tie something like that, post a picture and we'll admire your work.

 

[littlejuniata]

I think these may be the large Little J Sulphur?? Troutbert can you help? http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2064/11513716/20553543/348670216.jpg I don't now where Claret came in the only thing I associate that color with is the Hendrikson in some description of the fly or nymph?? The top nymph is a Steno type I believe??

 

[Chaz]

Well, there are 3 species of "Sulphurs" common to PA, and the nymphs aren't necessarily yellow. I'm not good with nymphs so I'd say ask the experts at PSU. And what Troutbert said.

 

[troutbert]

littlejuniata wrote:
I think these may be the large Little J Sulphur?? Troutbert can you help? http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL2064/11513716/20553543/348670216.jpg I don't now where Claret came in the only thing I associate that color with is the Hendrikson in some description of the fly or nymph?? The top nymph is a Steno type I believe??

Sheesh, I'm not sure. You may have a couple different species in the photo. I basically tie the nymphs a tannish color, some a little lighter, by mixing in some yellow dubbing, and some darker, by mixing in some dark brown.

The early, larger sulphur, size 14, has a dark brown nymph (maybe there are tinges of Claret and my perceptions are just not subtle enough to detect it!) Flyfishers Paradise sells a Dark Sulphur Nymph to imitate this species. A size 14 pheasant tail is pretty good too.

The size 16s hatch next. The nymphs are much lighter in color. The nymphs in Little Js first photo are this species, I think. This is what FFP calls their Light Sulphur Nymph. And lots of fly shops sell something similar. I think a pheasant tail is pretty dark to imitate these, but the pt does catch fish, no question.

The size 18s hatch last. The nymphs are also light in color, similar to the size 16s. Just, uh, smaller.

By the way, the book Hatches has a pretty good explanation of the sulphur hatches.

 

[Sylvaneous]

Picking up any rock in early May should reveal lots of color variations in sulfur nymphs. The early ones ARE darker when they hatch and the later ones ARE lighter when they hatch. Hatch time puts many more nymphs in the drift and available to the fish. It can get a lot more complicated than that, but doesn't have to. I basically use 3 colors of dubbing which may be one or even 2 too many. However, I'm sure more than 3 is unnecessary. One is a chocolate brown but not black. The other is easily described as the color of a well aged penny; maybe a tad more olive to it. (mix medium brown Hare tron with light olive Hare tron) THat's my go-to nymph color. The last one is a medium ginger color with some standard tan mixed-in to dim-down the ginger-y-ness of it as needed, if needed. The really light olive colored nymphs are between moltings. They hide tight underneath the rocks. Like when a snake sheds it's skin, they aren't active and so aren't seen much at all by trout.

To simplify, for the sz. 14 sulfur nymphs, I tie all the 2 darker colors. For the sz. 16, I do a few of all three, but mostly the darker 2. For sz. 18's I do only the mid and lighter colors. I mean, you already have a dark sz. 18 nymph: the Beatis you use in March. No need for another one in the turbid, turbulent flows on most any creek.

Syl

 

[afishinado]

Good stuff guys.

I keep it very simple to imitate sulpher or any other mayfly nymphs. To imitate most medium and smaller sized mayfly nymphs, I simply tie a light, a dark, and a mixed olive version of a hares ear nymph in various sizes. I take my dubbing from a hare’s mask which contains a mixture a lot of colors. I find that many store bought HE mixes are often just plain rabbit fur and don't have the range of colors in the mix, and does not have enough guard hairs in to make it gnarly looking enough. One of the three HE versions should resemble sulphers and other nymphs hatching at the time.

Strict match the hatch is seldom needed when fishing nymphs, IMO. I may use a net and/or turn over a rock or two to see what nymphs may be active and try to match the size, hue (light to dark) and general color. The nymphs with the dark wing pads are usually the ones ready to hatch. I usually fish a two-nymph rig, and tie on various sizes and colors nymphs based on what I find, or what I think may be hatching and let the fish decide. Trout usually aren’t super-selective when feeding on nymphs since they usually see a whole bunch of different sizes, shapes and colors drifting at any given time. Therefore I seem to have a lot more “luck” with a general representation of a nymph rather than the more realistic tied ones. I believe that a HE doesn’t look exactly like any one nymph, but a lot like many of them.

With just some HEs and PTs tied in various sizes in my nymph box, I believe I can catch trout in any PA trout stream. Good luck.

 

[littlejuniata]

What's so great about dry fly fishing is that you have ample time to check nymphs while waiting for the trout to rise, it's fun!