I made a pair of quick stops on the way both to and from Seattle, last week, and found these lovely creatures on the flora, near the river.
As much as I enjoyed finding them, the discovery that I had nothing in my fly boxes that was very close to a Yellow Sally was a bit disappointing.
A couple of good pics, and a bit of spare time later, I have some options drying and getting ready to box for future use. The main one, or at least the first I tied, today, was:
- Dry hooks – #16 3xLong
- Veevus 12/0 thread in a Light Cahill color
- Elk hair – Yellow
- CDC – Cahill Cream
- Dubbing – Hare-tron Yellow
- Hackle – #14 (smallest I had in the color I wanted!) Pale Yellow Grizzly
First off, I like the 3xL hooks for stoneflies, because of their own elongated and fairly narrow bodies. Clamp it into the vise, anchor on the thread 1/4 back from the eye, then wrap to right about above the hook point.
Grab a small bundle of the elk hair, cut it loose, brush or pull out the fine under-hairs near the butt ends, and prepare to stack. Remember that Stoneflies don’t have trailing tails, at least not that are significant, so we’re looking for a long body more than a flare end.
I stacked this, then measured out only a small portion of the length of the hook shank.
Shifting that to the point where the thread was hanging, I tied it in with two loose wraps, then some tighter ones forward of that point, then carried forward to bunch up the middle of the hair fibers to form a body.
From here, snip off those butt ends, give the trimmed section a couple of tight wraps to lock it down, then medium-tension turns back towards the bend, making sure not to put anything particularly tight next to the extended hair tips, so they do not flare out.
Okay….yes, I should have done a better job of trimming off those butt ends. I’m hoping the trout will mistake that for a leg…maybe?
From here, dub forward with a narrow dubbing noodle, to layer over the hair body you have laid down.
Apologies for the fuzzy pic. I may need to invest in a close-up lens that clips on the phone, again. I had one before the house fire, but never replaced it. Probably time.
Moving on, I took one of the CDC feathers, stroked the longer fibers towards the butt end, then tied the tip onto the hook, at the front of the dubbing.
Two wraps of the CDC, brushing the trailing fibers towards the back as I turned it, then tie down the feather and trim off the rest for later use. You should end up with trailing “legs” that wave about a bit, in any available breeze.
Brush those loose fibers towards the underside, and give the tie-off point a couple of additional, tight wraps. Next, another small bundle of elk hair; cut, brushed, stacked, and tied on with the tips in line with just barely behind where the first bundle of elk hair was tied in.
Notice the trailing fibers of the CDC? I like how that looks on the water, and I think the trout do, as well.
Next up, tie in the hackle feather just over the thread on the hackle wing, wrap forward with three or four turns, then tie it off, trim it, and whip finish.
To me, it looks “buggy.” Usually, when I sit down at the vise, I will tie a couple in a given size, then a couple more in a smaller size. Today, I opted to simply tie four different styles, all on the same #16 hook type. The other three were:
Same is the first, but without the tail or the CDC.
No elk hair fibers and extra hackle wraps. Might give a better “narrow body” image, when seen from beneath the film of the water. Not sure how well the back section will float, but I will pay extra attention to the body with the flotant.
The CDC explosion. Elk Hair tail, but body simply wrapped in CDC, palmered forward and tied off.
Yes, its really ugly, but I’m curious how it will look to the trout. I did trim the fibers to a reasonable radius from the hook shank, after this pic was taken.
It should be interesting to see how they each do, when I get the chance.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
FYI – New adds to the Nature Pics page and also a new page just for a Sunset I managed to catch on the North end of the Seattle area, during the week.
I will, hopefully, be sharing some pics of fish caught on at least one of these flies, in the near future.
Or, at least the beautiful location where I end up deploying them.
Until then,
Tight lines…