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3. Black stonefly

Why do we tie,fish, and catch fish on black stone fly nymphs. I was looking through the stone fly pics on here and did not see a single nymph that looked like the "black" stonefly that I tie. I originally started looking to try and see if I could improve on my pattern but unless I missed something the best improvement I could make would be to get rid of the black and switch to dark brown.
jeff

Jeff,
I look at it this way: Most of the places we fish stonefly nymphs are pretty rough and toumble and the trout get a split second look and make their decision. So black and dark brown aren't really all that far apart.
JW

There are two species of small dark Stoneflies in the early spring that are of interest here. Black Stonefly: Taeniopteryx navalis, and the Brown Stonefly, with T. hatching around late February, and S. following a few weeks later.
The nymph of the former in 14-16 2XL is a dark brown to black, while the latter in 16-18 is brown to dark red/brown. They are often found together, which quite frankly confuses me sometimes when the adults are on the snow banks.

Dick

What about larger black stones? I tie a black in all the same sizes as a golden. Maybe I'm not even imitating a particular species and they just take it because it looks tasty. I don't know? I agree with John in that your fishing riffles so color is less important, I suppose I just figured that this big black stone fly that I always fished with was an actual species. Who knew.
Jeff

Jeff, there is a little black stonefly, size 18, that hatches around here in March and April. If you fish the Letort or Yellow Breeches then it's good to have nymphs, wets, and dries to match it.

Oops! The little brown stonefly that I was referring to above (my home water: East Branch of the Delaware) is Strophopteryx faciata.

The next Stonefly to hatch is the Giant Black Stonefly: with the ferocious name Pteronarcys dorsata. It too is dark brown, but the ventral is sort of yellow / orange. That is what I believe the discussion is about, but this little bugger in size 12 to 16 does not come off till early April.

Another Black Stonefly: Isogenoides hansoni in sizes 12 to 16 follows a week later. It is black, with light green markings around the head and thorax.

I tie in a chocolate color, except for P. in which case the overhand weave keeps me humble.

Dick