With trout season rapidly approaching there are a couple things in particular that come to mind; black stone flies and big streamers. I’ve yet to capitalize on the early season stone fly hatch, but I have seen them crawling around on snowy banks near riffles on more than one occasion. Now prepared with a few new patterns I will dedicate more time to find some rising fish this march.
For this one I used a small piece of foam packing wrap to make a buoyant and fairly visible wing. Having the foam wing combined with deer hair legs I believe it should float well without hackle.
This simple pattern came from an old American Angler Magazine. Black dubbing, white e.p. wing, and grizzly hackle make for a nice high riding stone fly. The author prefers sizing up the hackle to make waking and skittering the fly easier.
black stone nymph
My other main focus this spring with be with medium to large streamers searching for some heavy weight contenders. While 20+ inch fish aren’t as common in small spring creeks as they can be on some large tailwaters, you can narrow down your chances by throwing flies that will provoke strikes from the real PREDATORS!
When this fly came off the vise it looked like it belonged in my musky box rather than my trout streamer box, but I’m optimistic that I’ll get some pigs to take a closer look at this one.
zoo cougar
Double zoo cougar. Deer hair heads on jointed flies make for some KILLER ACTION! More like a jointed rapala than a fly.
