Fly of the Month - April 2007

"Golden Stone"

Tied By: Eddie E. (AKA SloNDeep)

My inspiration for this fly came from Bob Jacklin. I saw him tying a March Brown nymph at the Somerset show about ten years ago, and he used a feather from a hen neck to tie in the legs like I do below. I originally tied this pattern with a palmered saddle hackle around the thorax, but wanted the legs to look more substantial. Having observed stoneflies in my tank and noticing that they don’t move their legs much when dislodged, I thought I would like the look of the perpendicular legs better. This fly has fished very well for me the last several years; I always have a full row in my nymph box devoted to this one fly.

 

Materials:

Hook: TMC 5263 #10 (I usually tie these in these sizes as well – 8 to14)

Dubbing: yellow rabbit blended with a little pearl lite-brite

Rib: Brown button thread

            On this fly I used tan thread colored brown with marker

Weight: 0.025” lead wire

Tails: Yellow goose biots

Back and Wing case: Brown swiss straw (can substitute z-lon or Thin Skin)

Legs/Antennae: brown mottled hen neck

 

Tying Instructions:

Tie in just behind hook eye (I begin with a flat waxed nylon) and tie back to the hook point

Make about 10-11 wraps of lead wire in the thorax region

Build up thread wraps immediately behind lead wraps, wrap a series of open figure 8’s back and forth over the lead wraps, build up thread wraps in front of the lead, and tie off (either whip finish or half hitch)

Apply head cement over wraps

**I am often tying quite a few of these so, at this point, I will hang these on a string or something and let the cement dry while preparing more lead underbodies.

Now with 6/0 thread, I tie in at the middle of the hook and tie back to the bend.

Dub a small ball at the hook bend

Use the dubbing ball to split a pair of goose biots for tails (the tails will be about ½ the length of the hook shank)

Tie in swiss straw on top of hook with at least 1 ½ inches extending back beyond the hook bend

Tie in rib material

Dub the abdomen (half the hook shank, up to the lead wraps)

Fold the swiss straw forward and tie it down at the front of the abdomen (don’t cut it)

Rib the abdomen and tie the rib material down and trim it

Fold the swiss straw back

Tie in a feather from a hen neck by the tips, with the dull side up and the butt extending back over the hook bend. Tie it in at the point where the swiss straw (wing case) is folded back (after you dub the thorax, you will fold this forward and the barbs will form the legs)

Dub the thorax – heavy

Fold hen feather forward, tie it down, and clip the stem leaving a few barbs on the hook eye side of the tie down point (these extra barbs are not necessary, but can be used as antennae later)

Fold the swiss straw forward and tie down at the same spot

Cut the swiss straw leaving about 1/8 inch tag/stub hanging over the hook eye (this, too, is not necessary, but I like the look, I like not trying to finish this fly up on the hook eye, and I think the stub makes the fly wobble more when fished – the naturals wobble when dislodged in a current, they don’t swim well)

Whip finish with dubbed thread at final tie down point – a fur collar

Head cement at collar

Then head cement the feather barbs extending forward and stroke them together, pulling them forward at each side of the hook eye – makes them look like antennae

Carefully pinch the fly in flat pliers to flatten the lead/thorax region a little – pinch too hard and you mash all the lead wraps against the hook and cut the wraps.

Top View

Bottom View