It’s Stonefly Time on the Gunpowder Falls and many other rivers in our region. On warm days, anglers will find these little aquatic insects flying – poorly – around the stream. They flutter across the water’s surface dropping eggs as they go. As the water warms in the spring, trout feel the urge to feed and become willing to chance an attack on these insects as they crate a disturbance on the surface.
Before they are flying “adult” insects, they are subsurface nymphs and delicious to a trout. They are not good swimmers and, once adrift in the current, drift downstream until they can latch onto something.
I’ve made a quick video showing how I tie an easy and fast stonefly imitation that works well when drifted below an indicator. I like to fish it on 6x fluorocarbon tippet with a #6 shot about 8” above. Give it a try and send me a note if it works – I love to hear fish stories!
