pittendrigh
Active Member
I think I finally found a good name for this fly. The Jellostone.
When I talk to my fly tying buddy Willy Self we sometimes talk about "the fly of year." Willy is, like myself, a compulsive experimentalist. Some flies work out and others don't. Some a lot better than others.
The Jellostone is they fly of a career for me. At least when defined strickly in terms of fish catching effectiveness. I've been fishing this fly since April. Been switching wet flies a lot too, in order to continually establish an ongoing comparison of sorts. And the Jellostone has been the fly of the day every day. All day long. I'm really pleased with this fly.
In the Rocky Mountains the larger dark brown Pteronarcys stonefly nymphs are vegetarian detritus eaters that require highly oxygenated water to survive. The Golden Stoneflies are carnivores. And they need far less oxygen to get by. You find them everywhere, from cold well-oxygenated bubbly riffles to silty irrigation return lower rivers. They're a bit smaller than the big dark nymphs. And they seem to work better too. This is the best stonefly nymph I've ever fished. The Jellostone.
Some bass tubes advertize themselves as "scented," which makes most fly fishermen cringe. Most are not scented. It doesn't seem to make any difference. The soft texture and semi-transparency is--I think--what makes these flies work so well. You can make them as large or as small as you want.
This one is tied on a #12 DaiRiki 280. A hopper hook, with a bit of flattened lead on the shank, rubberlegs sewn in after the fact plus a tuft of Gold Ice Dub. I use flat nylon to dimple the body blank on a #10 beading needle as a first step. Then mount it on the lead-adorned shank. Then add the Ice Dub. Sew in the legs. Add a dab or two of head cement in strategic locations and that's the fly. It is a fish-catching son of a gun.
Tying this fly on a curved-shank, down eye hopper hook makes a fly that rides with the hook pointing up, after you add the weight. It also imparts a nicely-realistic end-to-end curve to the body of the fly. If you catch a live stonefly nymph and toss it in the water it curls up and tumbles helplessly until it hits bottom. Hard-bodied dead straight nymphs wrapped around a metal hook shank are not, in that sense, realistic at all.
When I talk to my fly tying buddy Willy Self we sometimes talk about "the fly of year." Willy is, like myself, a compulsive experimentalist. Some flies work out and others don't. Some a lot better than others.
The Jellostone is they fly of a career for me. At least when defined strickly in terms of fish catching effectiveness. I've been fishing this fly since April. Been switching wet flies a lot too, in order to continually establish an ongoing comparison of sorts. And the Jellostone has been the fly of the day every day. All day long. I'm really pleased with this fly.
In the Rocky Mountains the larger dark brown Pteronarcys stonefly nymphs are vegetarian detritus eaters that require highly oxygenated water to survive. The Golden Stoneflies are carnivores. And they need far less oxygen to get by. You find them everywhere, from cold well-oxygenated bubbly riffles to silty irrigation return lower rivers. They're a bit smaller than the big dark nymphs. And they seem to work better too. This is the best stonefly nymph I've ever fished. The Jellostone.
Some bass tubes advertize themselves as "scented," which makes most fly fishermen cringe. Most are not scented. It doesn't seem to make any difference. The soft texture and semi-transparency is--I think--what makes these flies work so well. You can make them as large or as small as you want.
This one is tied on a #12 DaiRiki 280. A hopper hook, with a bit of flattened lead on the shank, rubberlegs sewn in after the fact plus a tuft of Gold Ice Dub. I use flat nylon to dimple the body blank on a #10 beading needle as a first step. Then mount it on the lead-adorned shank. Then add the Ice Dub. Sew in the legs. Add a dab or two of head cement in strategic locations and that's the fly. It is a fish-catching son of a gun.
Tying this fly on a curved-shank, down eye hopper hook makes a fly that rides with the hook pointing up, after you add the weight. It also imparts a nicely-realistic end-to-end curve to the body of the fly. If you catch a live stonefly nymph and toss it in the water it curls up and tumbles helplessly until it hits bottom. Hard-bodied dead straight nymphs wrapped around a metal hook shank are not, in that sense, realistic at all.
