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3. Pale, or white nymphs., Page 3

When I picked up the rock and saw this whitish nymph, I thought the guys on TroutNut will like this as much as I do. :-) (And CJ on the SGM forum too.)

Looks good to me. It´s best to have some various colors in the arsenal and try most of them. That´s one of the joys of fly fishing, discovering new flies and patterns that work.

Here's the thread with the molted stone fly pattern by Paul (page 1), along with considerable discussion about fishing such flies.

Thanks Louis! Mack's timeline in the other thread confirms what was suggested here. It seems that they stay light for 3 to 4 hours with another 3 to 4 hours growing progressively darker. Perhaps those that believe that they synchronize their final molts to some degree in the early morning hours of Spring (fishing pale flies dawn to mid-morning) are on to something?

Regardless, it seems to me that even if true (synchronous dawn molting) this would mostly be important only out West where their population densities are high enough to compensate for the tiny fraction of the molting population that would ever be in the drift. Even though I fish these kinds of waters, I'm not convinced of the need to lug specialized patterns around for this - especially If I'm not going to be on the water at the crack of dawn (which is most of the time). Do enough of that lugging already! :)

I would agree. (But I'm still fishing my pale stonefly! For reasons already discussed.)

Paul,

Yes, I think the bottom line is that while there probably aren't enough molts in the drift most times and places to get the fish dialed into them, your pale nymph scores on two points:

1. It is much more visible in the right light and water conditions.
2. Off-white nymphs do occur in nature and the fish surely recognize them as good vittles.

Reasons enough for their use.:)

BTW - Ever try a Bird's Stonefly type nymph? One in 2X long size 8 is a really good summer searching pattern in waters inhabited by both Perlids and Pteronarcyids. The medium brown coloration and smaller size does a good job simulating earlier instars of both, particularly the recently molted latter.

No I haven't tried Bird's Stone. I guess I like to invent my own. A large part of the fun for me. I tie my nylon stones in a variety of color patterns.

No, I meant the type based on color combinations and overall look, not the actual fly. Most western anglers focus on black or golden colored nymphs for stoneflies. His brown one broke from that norm. I only used it as a reference instead of a full description, knowing that you would recognize it. Sorry for the confusion.:)

I see. I do have some stones in med brown hues of various sizes. All have pale bellies and vary in dorsal shade depending on where I'm fishing. My "golden's" vary from recently molted to a dark gold.

Pteronarcys has never taken much space in my boxes bc they are present in such low numbers in the East, and in the smaller water I currently fish here in Colorado.

Yeah, makes sense. In a recent thread I think Dubbin mentioned the relative unimportance of the salmonfly in CO rivers. I found that quite surprising, but I haven't fished there much.

My guess is they are a big river critter -they are detritivores after all. I believe there is some salmonfly action on some of the larger rivers here, but is more miss than hit.

Here it is, Tom. Thought you might find this interesting.