FLYMPH FORUM

Leisenring's recipe for the Half Stone Nymph is printed on page 106 of the 1971 edition of The Art of Tying the Wet Fly and Fishing the Flymph (p. 63 of the 1941 edition). Has anybody on the forum tied this one?
Evidently the pattern was only of marginal importance since it was not photographed for the book. A Google image search did not turn up anything that matches it either. Here is Leisenring's recipe:

HALF STONE NYMPH
HOOK: 13, 14
SILK: Primrose yellow.
HACKLE: Very short blue dun hen’s hackle, 2 turns or 3 turns at the most.
TAIL: None
RIB: Very fine gold or silver wire.
BODY: Primrose yellow buttonhole twist.
THORAX: Mole’s fur dubbed fairly heavily.

My materials are similar, but the proportions of the body, hackle and thorax are just a guess. I suspect that both the thorax and hackle should be smaller:

HOOK: Size 14 Mustad R50U-94842
THREAD: Pearsall's Primrose
HACKLE: Rusty dun hen
RIB: Gold wire
BODY: One strand of Corticelli buttonhole twist (three-strand)
THORAX: Mole on Primrose silk

This will be a great pattern to test around here (Western New York) come May/June. We have a good population of golden stone flies in the local streams. I think this would be a perfect imitation for the smaller nymphs. Thanks for sharing.

Without a longer Abdomen, and some sort of a tail, I am seeing a Caddis here and not a Stone. I will be the first to admit that one does not have to make an exact match of the insect in question to be successful. That being said, a 2x long hook and a tail would, in my opinion, produce a better Stone imitation..

Again, just my opinion.

Your pattern did inspire me to tie this though.

Hook - Mustad 9671 size 14
Thread - UNI-Thread 8/0
Tail- Gold Goose Biots
Abdomen - Light Olive UNI-Stretch (yellow)
Rib -Light Olive UNI-Stretch (corded)
Thorax - Black Synthetic dubbing
Collard - Lt. Dun Hen Hackle

Dubbn,
Very cool, and convincing.

I found another fly in Pete Hidy's collection that has some of the attributes of Leisenring's Half Stone Nymph, and might be a guide to his proportions. This little guy has the thread body, mole thorax, and the "very short" hackle that Leisenring specified. The only differences are the colors of the body and hackle.

DNicolson wrote:The Half Stone is quite an old pattern/name and I do not think it had anything to do
with Stoneflies.

My bad.

A funny thing indeed. What are the odds?

I just found another thread-bodied fly tied either by JL or PH that probably gives us a better idea of the proportions Leisenring intended for his Half Stone Nymph. The bodies tend to be similar in length to the thorax, or, as in this case, shorter.