Like A Rolling Stone …

Just think of Bob Dylan wailing that one out. Cringe worthy.

Great pictures from earlier this week by Tall Timber Fly Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe. He turned over a couple of rocks in the Connecticut River to check what could be happening for insect activity and discovered this healthy looking stonefly nymph.

Stones are an important food source for our trout and salmon here on the Upper Connecticut River, perhaps the most important.  They are numerous and varied, and the fish seem to love them all – the one pictured above could actually be a Golden Stone, based on the description given below by Thomas Ames in his excellent book, Hatch Guide For New England Streams. 

“The upper reaches of the Connecticut River are stonefly Heaven. The river is still small, tree-lined and rich enough to support a healthy caddis population, which in turn feeds some very big Golden Stonefly creepers. These larger species require two to three years to mature, so they are always present in the stream. They have branched gills, but on the thorax only. On some species the dorsal surfaces of their heads and thoraxes are decorated with elaborate designs, something like a brown and yellow Rorschach ink blot test, and their abdomens are ringed with stripes. Others are plainer, a more uniform brown. Their undersides are more evenly colored, usually the warm shade of yellow on which many imitations are based.”

Ames’s description of the Golden Stone goes on from there, but I think our nymph pictured above takes the characteristics of the “plainer, a more uniform brown” stonefly. The underside is undoubtedly that of a Golden Stone however.

Stonefly imitations should be a big part of any fly box, and a few of the patterns that come to mind are given below.

• Nymphs – Prince, Golden Stone, Pheasant Tail, Black Stone, Pat’s Rubber Legs, Black Woolybugger
• Dries – Stimulator (all colors and sizes), Yellow Sally, Lime Sally, Yellow Hornberg

Make sure you have a few in your box and turn some rocks over to check out what’s happening out there.