Little Yellow Stonefly

[gingerdun]

I am curious about whether the pattern I've been modifying for the big golden stonefly nymph could also serve for the more common Little Yellow Stonefly (Perlodidae).
Rather than wrap yarn, I decided to chop it up for dubbing which give me more control for size and color.





Hook: Size 8 Green Caddis 80,000
Silk: hot orange
Weight: .015 single wrap of lead
Rib 1: brown yarn, single ply
Rib 2: gold wire
Tail: pheasant tail barbs
Body: gold, burnt orange, and olive yarn cut short and blended for dubbing loop
Hackle: brown grizzly, trimmed one side

I used to take the extra time to separate the strands of yarn before cutting and blending, but I found that is a waste of time. I just cut the 4-ply yarn into 1/4" chunks for the coffee grinder to separate. Worked great. I sure do love using William's perfectly-crafted Clark block. Amazing work William.

[tie2fish]

Great post, Lance. I think your smaller version will be an excellent fishing pattern, in addition to being a visual delight.

[hankaye]

gingerdun, Howdy;

Interesting theory, looking forword to seeing the results
from Rosco, or sooner. Should you get a chance to visit one
of your local streams before then.

hank

[Ruard]

Great work Lance, spessily the dubbing in the loop. Inspiring.

Do you wind the hackle from the eye to the bend or from the middle to the eye?


greeting

[gingerdun]

Hi Ruard,Thanks for the kind words.
This may not be the ideal way, but I tie the stem in at the middle, and wind forward to the eye.
I'll also try tying in the tip.
And I might try winding the hackle from eye to midpoint, just to see what happens.
I was concerned that winding from front to back would require more trampling of the thorax fur with thread, so I avoided it.
This is were my lack of experience leaves me unsure about the best practice.

Lance

[Ruard]

Hi Lance,

I think I would do it like this:

stop in the middle with the dubbingbrush, tie off, bring the rib to the middle tie off with 2 turns bring the thread to the eye, tie in the hackle pointing over the eye, wind the dubbing brush to the eye, tie off, wind the hackle to the middle, fix it with the rib and bring the rib to the eye through the hackle and over the hacklestem, tie off and whipfinisch.


greeting

[William Anderson]

Lance, the Jr version should play very well for lots of reasons. Thanks for the explanation. I tried to sneak in two flies today but didn't manage to pull this off. I was bringing the hackle back from front to mid as I've done successfully before in large open turns, and bringing touch dubbed thread up through the hackle. Didn't work for me this time.

And thanks for the mention and kind works on the block. Your illustration here is one of the single best series to show the process, procedure and fine results. Great pics, and much thanks.

Now for Yellow Sally's.

[Roadkill]

I don't think we should overlook the use of the standard Partridge and Yellow for the adult insect especially if there are those skinny little egg layers flitting about the stream. I have tied some P&Ys with an egg sac on the back and think they make a simple to tie excellent cripple or drowned adult. And if the little green stoneflies in your area are as yellow as some of ours it does double duty.

[Mataura mayfly]

That is a great looking pattern, regardless of size Lance. Love the dedicated photos of the material build-up and you are correct, they are a fine looking dubbing block.

[CreationBear]

I don't think we should overlook the use of the standard Partridge and Yellow for the adult insect

I think that's especially true if you are fishing to Alloperla (Little Yellow/Green Sallies)--ours in the Southern Highlands at least are mostly #14 or smaller, even trending to a #18 as the year progresses. I know y'all's mosquitoes can drag off small animals and children but I'd suspect that there will be more small stones coming off during the day than big ones...though you can never tell what a trout will be keyed-in on.