Little winter snowflies (stone fly)

[FrequentTyer 0]

I have been playing around with stone fly nymphs in an attempt to develop a pattern to match the little winter snow fly nymph seen here. I know a lot of guys use pheasant tails or soft hackles, but I wanted to try and do a more realistic match. It turns out these are small by stonefly standards (#16-18) and scaling down most stonefly patterns is an exercise in frustration (at least for me), and I wanted to stick to natural materials as much as possible. So I came up with the pattern (new to me) shown below (#16) and wanted to get your helpful opinion, and comments. As soon as work aligns with weather I will ask the fish for their opinon.

 

 

Note, for this last picture I turned the fly upside down in the vice which led to the tail being splayed much more than it is on the fly off the vise. The odd angle of the hook is also exaggerating the length of the head. This is the same fly pictured in the first two above.

Thanks,

Mike.

[Prosopium w. 0]

Very nice! I think that fly will CRUSH! One thing you might consider is running that rib through the thorax to separate it into two segments like the natural (a big hind one, a medium front, then the small thread head)? Although I highly doubt that the fish would care at all...and it might end up looking dumb that way. But I have used that technique very successfully on net-spinning caddis larvae and have toyed with doing it on my own micro stones.

 

For what it's worth, my micro stonefly nymphs are pretty simple, primarily because I burn through a lot of them. I use tiemco 3761 (sz 18-16) along with a dyed barred turkey biot for the body and wingcase (yellow barred is my favorite) and a small brass or brown bead-head to match the biot. I use partridge biots or a sparse clump of barbs for tailing. I used to tie feather legs like you have, but have switched to rough, plucked dubbing over the last couple years.

 

 

[hopperfisher 0]

Those are both nice patterns. I don't fish nymphs much anymore (not patient enough, my fault) but i would fish those, they both look awesome!!! Way better than the old PT. They could pass for a baetis nymph as well. Remember, it's not about about what what the fisherman thinks.

[Will K 0]

Great looking flies guys.

 

Entomology question. I've never thought to look for/at winter stone nymphs. Never thought about them unitl just now actually which is a bit embarassing! All the winter stones Ive seen as adults were black or dark gray. Are the nymphs lighter in color or are there different species that hatch in winter and I'm just seeing one species on my local waters?

[SSC 0]

will

click on the link in the original post and you will see a picture of the nymph.

[Will K 0]

SSC - I missed that - very cool. Never even gave it a thought, just assumed (uh oh) that they nymphs were dark like the adults I see... good excuse to tie up something else Kinda makes me think telico nymph actually...

[FrequentTyer 0]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. I really appreciate it.

That is a nice and elegantly simple pattern Prosopium w. I love the look of the biot body. Will K, you are not alone. A lot of people assume the nymphs are black, and one of the most common flys used in a black pheasant tail. They work, but I'm hoping a closer match might provde an edge. So don't tell anyone :-)

Mike.

[wvfishn 0]

I like it and I think it will work.

 

Stones are plentiful in my area now and slinging something like this at them could pose to be a game changer.

[sandflyx 0]

I like it when someone does their home work as in looking at the creature you are going to tie. Nice job there frequent tyer.

[novabass 0]

FrequentTyer, beautiful fly, love it!

[blackdog1101 0]

HERE is the same stonefly as in the link above, Capniidae (Snowflies) Stonefly, as an adult. You will see it is black, whereas the nymph is yellow. I use pheasant tail died yellow and basically tie a chubby PT, but FrequentTyer's fly is outstanding.

[shoebop 0]

Here's an adult little stonefly that I tie.

 

[SSC 0]

Shoebop,

What size hook is that tied on?

[Will K 0]

Awesome, I love the info here. Great links and flies.

 

The amazing thing, is how much larger the wing makes them appear as adults compared to as nymphs. looks to be about 6mm long but then another 4-5mm when the wing is added to the body. I'd never measured them, but seeing that pic caused me to look deeper. Very cool.

[shoebop 0]

Shoebop,

What size hook is that tied on?

If I remember, I think it is a #16. You can go smaller if you want but I wouldn't go larger than a #14.