Black stones

Looking for some help.I tie lots of stones for steelheading and they seem to work well here also.But I "ve only bought dries for use mostly on the Mianus.I've got a pattern I
m working on but don't really know what to do for a tail.Or do I not even use one.I"m thankfull for any advice.Love the site .

Many stonefly patterns use goose biots for the tail. Some other patterns use hackle fibers. All underwater stonefly patterns use a tail.

This is sort of a standard-looking stonefly pattern with biot tail and antennae:
http://www.centralflies.com/nymph-fl...-kaufmans.html

Thanks Alan.I use biots on my nymphs but what about on the dry fly?

To my knowledge, adult stones really don't have appreciable tails. I think your best bet would be to tie a dark low-riding downwing style fly. I know that in the Mianus, the bivisible is supposedly a good pattern, and that is tail-less.

You could probably even tie a dark elk hair caddis, trim the bottom hackle so it floats flush in the surface.

Let us know how you make out.

Maybe I misunderstood your question, but I'm with Brookie, any dry pattern representing an adult stonefly never has a tail. I am thinking about flies like stimulators, sofa pillow styles and general purpose elk hair winged flies. For an adult imitation of the early browns and blacks, I would probably just make a sparsely winged elk hair caddis.

Rusty,

If you're going to tie a stimulator pattern use a small bunch of deer or elk hair tips. Keep them short but I guess you could call it a tail?? anyway that's what I do, it gives the fly balance and gives it the finishing touch in a way.

here's a pic:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den

-kyle

Thanks for all your help guys.I just finished a caddis but used black superfine dubbing.Looks like a stone to me lol. Don't tell the fish,hopefully I'll fool a few.

For the adults you can use an "F Fly."

http://www.fishandfly.co.uk/tledit0705.html

Make the body out of the black fur of your choice. I like to dub the head with trimmed cdc for this fly pattern.

Also, as others have said the tails are of no importance as far as the adults are concerned.