Chain stone fly -- use of necklace chain in tying

[troutracker 0]

The Chain Stone uses thin-necklace-chain in a new stone fly nymph design that features uniquely articulated, weighted legs and tails that make one of the heaviest bomb/anchor-style flies yet. Fished as the point in a two-fly Euro-nymph rig and weighted with enough heft to bottom bounce through a rock-lined pool makes the weighted, articulated legs readily flex like the natural as the fly bounces and tumbles. At the same time, the weight is distributed across the body as well as the legs seems to allow the fly to slither over crevices and hang up less often. In the few months since its inception, the Chain Stone has proven to be consistent fish taker in Colorado as well as Montana.

Step by step tying instructions for the Chain Stone pattern can be found on youtube.com at: https://youtu.be/o4npLqsElfU, and Fishing the Chain Stone at https://youtu.be/cB7kmaCkGgE

Chain Stone Recipe

Hook: A wide gap Jig hook with about a 0.5-1 inch long shank. Firehole 551 size 4 to a Firehole 570 size 6 hooks works. The fly shown in the photographs is tied on a Daiichi 4640 hook with the barb pinched down.

Hook Weighting: parallel pieces of 0.025 lead-- 0.35 lashed in on top of hook-- that is placed opposite side of shank from hook bend to enhance inversion of the jigged fly.

Thread: Ultra-thread 70 denier in light-yellow shades or cream color.

Bead: 3 – 5 mm tungsten disco slotted bead. Vary the size as needed to impart the heft needed to make the fly for bottom bounce in the local stream or river conditions

Tail: Thin golden-colored chain around 0.5mm in width. I currently use: Gold Chain, Item# H20-4525CH. Gold-plated brass, 0.2mm x 0.4mm serpentine chain: https: //www.firemountaingems.com/itemdetails/H20-4525CH

Ribbing: Ultra-wire medium Amber copper wire spiraled forward to give a segmented look.

Dubbing-- abdomen and thorax: In a blade style coffee grinder, mix roughly equal parts of these dubbing products to match color of recently-molted golden stones: Prism SLF Amber and Super Bright cream. Many light gold-colored dubbing that includes sparkle-like Antron fiber and so forth will work.

Wing Case: 10-20 fibers from a golden pheasant tail pulled tight and clinched to make a substantial width wing case yet held low and tight to body of the fly

Legs: Same material as tail chain. A thin golden-colored chain but tied long, say 2-3cm on each side to increase the movement of the articulated chain as well as the heft of the fly.

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The photographs show the fish-attracting action of the heavy articulated legs and tail possible when fished with bottom bouncing tactics. I tie these flies to have a total length, including tail chain, of  about 0.75 to 1.25 inch length (19 to 32 mm). 

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[SilverCreek 0]

Let us know how it works.

My concern is that the fish will reject/spit the fly after they feel the metal chains.

[troutracker 0]

I  agree that it could happen sometimes.  That said, the performance of the fly has been good when fishing it. I have posted a video on fishing the Chain Stone on youtube.com at  https://youtu.be/cB7kmaCkGgE  To clarify this is an edited video and not make it seem like bragging, I hook several fish in a span of a few minutes. In real time it was something like 7 fish in around 10 minutes.  This hole was so productive because it likely had not been fished since last Fall because it was inaccessible due to low water.  I can't remember the split but several fish each were caught on the Chain Stone anchor and the pheasant tail dropper.  That day on the Stillwater, I caught a mixture of Rainbows, Cutbows and whitefish with the Chain Stone. 

Also, I'm fishing it as the anchor on a Euro-nymphing rig, so as you likely know, the bites tend to be detected early-on and a strike soon follows. In practice, this method seems to help markedly reduce the problem of fish spitting out the fly-- including the Chain Stone.

So, why use the Chain stone over other stone fly patterns?  First of all it is a bomb fly that gets down quickly.  Given the amount of weight added, beads, weight on the hook shank and the weight of the brass chain it can be made to be one of the heaviest flies around that still maintains a typical (slim) profile of golden stone flies in the rivers I fish. Even though a heavyweight fly, when fishing it, It seems to hang up less often and when it does it seems to be able to get loose more often.  I think the legs may act to span cracks and crevices and help keep the fly moving.  

[troutracker 0]

Another point to consider in the discussion of the fish spitting the fly: As the Chain Stone swings during casting and the legs work to and fro,  the legs loosen up more from what you see in the photo of a newlytied fly.  After a short time of casting, when I bring the fly up to see if any debris is clinging to it, the legs are flexible enough to rest against the body of the fly.  To me, this flexibility may lessen the detection of the legs by the fish as well as promoting getting the legs out of the way of the hook point during a strike. 

[flytire 0]

Interesting fly pattern

[troutracker 0]

To help answer the question of whether the trout split the fly I made a short video of the fly being fished on the upper Arkansas River.   Its posted at: youtu.be/uWFXLH7HJ04

[troutracker 0]

On 5/15/2021 at 12:01 PM, SilverCreek said:

Let us know how it works.

My concern is that the fish will reject/spit the fly after they feel the metal chains.

To help answer the question of whether the trout split the fly I made a short video of the fly being fished on the upper Arkansas River.   Its posted at: youtu.be/uWFXLH7HJ04

[SilverCreek 0]

Looks it works!!!!

Here's your video