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Sitting out back this afternoon, sipping coffee while the Bonaparte meandered by I had the joy of watching two adult stoneflies crawl around my pant leg. They must have been size 18 tops. I don't know much about these little flies seeing as I spend 100 days a year on lakes doesn't leave much time for exploring rivers and their inhabitants. So feel free to inform me about hatch times, characteristics and the such. I do know the basics but not enough to develop original patterns for imitation. Tight thread, Prof.
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John, My knowledge about Stoneflys, is that they are of Incomplete Metamorphosis. This means they go right from the Nymph stage to the Adult stage. Nymphs, depending on the Brand, the Salmon and Golden Stones (I think) live the longest, and a lot of times depending on the stream is where you will find stonefly nymphs that are bigger or smaller. Stoneflys nymphs are a good source of food because they are in the river before any other hathces, therefore they are a fallback food for the trout. Think of them as the bare essentials. I was actually at the seymour today (river in the lower mainland) and I was waling over several rocks as I began my trek up river to cover water, and I almost stepped on a few stonefly nymphs that were probably coming out of the water in prepartion for a hatch. My Knowledge of Stoneflys, is that they spend a lot of time in moving water, although you will find them in lake systems, but a lot of times, the faster the water, the bigger the stoneflys. When they're ready to hatch, and/or the water hits a certain temperature, they find the shallows, and climb out into the air and hatch. As Nymphs they have gills, and the larger nymphs if I haven't already mentioned prefer faster aeriated waters, where as the smaller ones prefer the smaller stuff. Thats why on rivers such as the swift ones we fish, you can get away with larger stonefly nymphs a lot of the time. I guess a lot of what I'm saying is basics for the avid steelhead fly fisher, maybe of no help for you. Patterns I've heard of that work well are the Black Spade, Box Canyon Stone, and your basic stonefly bead head nymphs. A friend of mine has fallen in love with the bead head because it weights the head of the fly and thus the tail of the fly is in the air and it almost swims. He says its a great help for nymphing. A book I suggest you read is Handbook of hathces by Dave Hughes. This book, along with some help of friends has helped me out. If you can't find this book, or pick it up, it does have info on a few basic patterns, let me know. If I haven't helped you out, and everything I said, you already know, maybe I've helped someone else out. Scott
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The earliest, most reliable hatch is the chironomid/midge. It will hatch in January and February on the rivers. I don't know specifically about stoneflies, but in the Colorado area, the big assed salmon flies hatch in late June/July. This is obviously after freshet. You'll find that blue winged olives (i think) will hatch before freshet in April-ish. Scott, is that hatch book, a BC hatch book.
We have examples of them here at AnglingBC in the gallery. |
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