15 replies to this topic

[Paul vd Driesche]

Hey all,

It's been a while but here is another stonefly I did. This is a "fast" one. It still takes me about 7 hours to put together but that's quick compared to the 50 hours or more I usually spent on my realistic stuff. Johan was my inspiration here, he does a lot of his work using these techniques. I used nymphskin for the body, mono and tying thread for the legs and plastic sheet with the vains scratched into them for the wings. Personally I prefer the versions of 50 hours or more but when you don't want to spent that much time on one fly you can create some nice things this way.

b.t.w......it's awefully quite here lately....crisis can't be the reason with the cheap stuff we use to create or flies...can it?

Greets Paul.

[Andrés T]

7 hours is still plenty of time for you my friend; you have to try it in half an hour next time LOL,LOL.

Brilliant!

[Floyd]

WOW Now that's a great looking Stone Fly.

[steelie]

Good Day,

Excellent fly! Could you explain your technique for the head? Thanks!

Steelie

[British mike]

Hi Paul
Thats a nice quick stonefly adult...................did I say quick?................lol seriously it is good to be able to tie realistic patterns in less time sometimes.
My last adult took some 20 hours to tie.
I agree it is getting a little quiet on the forum and im not sure as to why that is, my excuse is that I have been very busy at work and around the house.
Thats my excuse anyway..........................thanks for sharing the stonefly

Mike.......................................

[Paul vd Driesche]

Hey all,

Thanx for the comments.

Steelie, the read is actually quite simple. I keep the underbody pretty thin where the head will be. Of course the underbody needs to be a flat sigar shape. When you start working on the head you need to get the antennae tied on first. These are sanded pieces of mono about 25/100 so tjat will help with a bit of a flat shape. Check a picture of a real bug for the exact position because it will mess up the proportions if you even are slightly off. This goes especially for the horizontal position and for the distance of the antennae to the "nose" of the fly. put some wraps of thread at the base of the antennae to create these...??...whatever it may be called that these stone flies have at the base of these antennae... Then I use a thin strip of rafaene (raffia...what's the correct word in english?) and tie that down on the head. You need to get 1 or 2 wraps of thread before the antennae (very little space so that can be a challange) and tie down the strip af raffia there. Than go back to the neck with your thread, fold the raffie back and tie it down in the neck of the fly...just repeat this untill you reach the volume you need. This will create the seperation between the nose and the forehead/eye's.
The eye's are small balls of melted mono...like we use for shrimp but cut in half and and attached with wader repear (the UV stuff)....or a small piece of mono melted on both sides and tied in before you do the trick with the raffia strip...both ways work fine. With the bigger ones I add mouth parts too...heat benden mono mostly.

Hmmm...it's not easy to explain something like this I hope you understand what I mean.

Greets Paul.

[Redwings1]

Great looking stonefly Paul. Digging the look of the wings from that angle

[johan-p]

Great fly Paul,

Johan

[Futzer]

Top Notch Paul! Cheers, Jeff.

[steelie]

Good Day,

Thanks Paul!

Steelie

[Tom Gibbons]

Hello Paul, Very nice work, but do you fish it? Sunday,the 31st of May I was fishing the Belvedere,NJ. section of the Pequest River about 11 am and spotted a large commotion on water surface. It was ,I think a very large stonefly?, about 1 1/2" inches long, dun plumb color,with mandibles which [when I scouped it up to show my nephew] it was busily employing on my palm with noticeable pressure. I also showed it to two other fellows ,no one had ever seen one befor,nor myself. So many thoughts have gone through my mind since,no camera,etc., etc. Well anyway I will be asking about its identification till I'm satisfied. Anyone can jump into this,I'm all ears,er, eyes. Thanks again, Tom.

[Paul vd Driesche]

Thnx guys....it's much apreciated

Tom, As you can see my realistic work has no hook eye...it's there but in this case, it's nose is the front of the hookeye covered with a strip of nymph skin. You could fish it if you leave the hook eye exposed. I would use a different wing material too but otherwise it wouldn't be any problem. Tying a dozen or so would keep you bussy for about a week so it might be better to use an easier tyable pattern

I think you might have found a Dobsonfly? The adult that crawls out of the hellgrammite? The mandibles make that a reasonable asumption I guess.
The Nymph doesn't have these large mandibles but the adult male's do so if it just emerged (which they do in the mub in the riverbanks)? It's a common insect in your area if I'm informed correctly.
The color is not very stone fly either...these would be brownish. The Dun plumb color says Dobsonfly too. The wings of a Dobson fly are larger compared to the body of the insect than the one's of the stone fly. Stone fly wings are as long as the body and dobson fly wings are much longer than the body so that's quite a difference. Some species can grow up to 4 inches but around New Jersey 2 inches is common. I probably don't have to tell you but the nymph's bite....hard
Just google dobsonfly and see if that's the right insect...and please let me know...I'm kind of currious My knowledge of these bugs is based on internet so I might be wrong here.
Here is a link to get you started. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfly

Let me know.

Greets Paul.

[Tom Gibbons]

Hello Paul,
As you explained, yes it was according to Wiki on "Dobson Fly", the female. Smaller mandibles, and determinedly vicious creature. It was in fact two inches long, and intimidating. .Thank you for the education,the little push in the right direction, and for being accessible on this great arena of flyfishermen. Also I applaud your command of English, and I correct myself on the word "plumb", when I meant "plum". And yes, clearly there was no "eye",,Ha,Ha,,again you have to deal with [I'm blind in one eye and can't see out of the other, deaf in one ear, can't hear out of the other, me.Ya man, really cool stuff. Tom.

[Paul vd Driesche]

Hey Tom,

You are welcome, I'm just glad I was right and that I could help. I can only hope to run into one of these bugs myself. Living in the Netherlands the availability of big bugs is a bit disappointing This shows how far the internet can take you . I had to do a lot of searching and checking images of these creatures to make the Hellgrammite that I posted some time ago on this forum...another good thing that comes from realistic tying. You really learn something.

And thnx for the compliment on my English

Greets Paul.

[Tom Gibbons]

Hello Paul,
Yes I noticed you were in the site also surprised to see Hans W. in here as well ,what a small world this PC has given us." OOHRAH " I say ! ! BTW, it was for the most part because of my discovery of Hans W.on Global that I found my way to this wonderful site. He deserves the praise of all FFer's and the company he keeps as well. Hey it was doggone great of you to get back to me. I just put a new sysem together[PC] so I'm in the high speed low drag cyber space now; just have to learn to use it's power. Need a camera, mike hd'phones etc. and time to do it . You know "so many fish, so little time".Man, how about that bug anyway? you said you don' have so many bugs in Netherlands? Do you have "Blackflies" over there? Well anyway I have so much to learn, and I am so impatient. I have 40 yrs. experience with the longrod, yet alongside the new guys I feel I have to learn all over again. In fact. Tom.