Trout Diet

If you are lucky enough to be fly fishing during a stonefly hatch, then you know that nothing else will satisfy a hungry trout.  Even larger trout that might normally ignore aquatic insects will zero in on these huge bugs.  The stoneflies simply are too large and too nutrient rich for large trout to ignore.  The key, like in all fly fishing situations, is knowing the water you are going to fish and having flies in a variety of sizes and colors to match the naturals.

The fact is, if you find yourself on the water during a stonefly hatch and you don't have a stonefly pattern on hand, you might as well stop your fly casting and sit down and relax because you wont be catching trout.

As always, lets start with the adult.  If you look around during a mayfly hatch you can't miss them.  These bugs are a nice size.  Here in the West, the biggest are the Golden Stonefly and the Giant Black Stonefly.  As you may already know, the larval stoneflies will stay in their nymph form for three years.  When they mature they will make their way from the river bottom to the shore.  From their they will climb onto the branches of nearby foliage to let their skins dry.  When their skins have become brittle they split and the adult emerges to fly away and mate.  The female then will fly to the water to deposit her eggs.  She lets her abdomen break the surface and her eggs will fall to the bottom to repeat the cycle.  The problem for the stoneflies is that they are not the most adept at flying.  Often times their wings will get too wet and they will stay stuck in the river.  Presenting an adult Stonefly pattern with Jerky movements will get amazing strikes from huge trout.

My all time favorite fly to use as an attractor or a stonefly is the stimulator fly.  They come with an orange body, a yellow body and a green body.  These are killer flies and I always have extra on hand.  Sometimes I'll tie on an emerger pattern or small dry behind it.  A second option is the Madam X fly.  This is another classic fly that, like the stimulator fly, has the length to suggest a stonefly.  There is a school of thought that if a fly is effective, add legs to make it more effective.  Sometimes it really is true.  That's where the Madam X fly comes in.  The legs on it seem to add a little more life that may make all the difference when my stimulator isn't getting the attention I want.