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stonefly tails - alternatives


pokerfish

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Any body have feedback on stonefly tails using other than a swack of elk/deer?

I have been replacing the bunch of hair on some nymphs (hares ear) and on my adams, with some success.  and I like how they look. they fish as comparatively.

 I tied some stones with biots and they look good, '

Anybody have on water experience they care to share.

 

Thanks.

 

Tom

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When I was in Kamloops, commonly tied the adams dry with a deer hair tail.  sparser than the stonefly, but same style.   I liked the floatation and wide body that the deer gave it, but like the look of cdl, moose mane or even partridge.

Any huge difference in how the stones fish?

 

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1 hour ago, pokerfish said:

Thanks guys.

I wasnt clear in my first post, I was looking at the replacing the deer/elk in a stimulator pattern.

 

I think you could still go with short rubber legs or spanflex/life-flex type stuff. If you stretch them when you tie them down they shouldn't add any more bulk than deer hair. Should be more durable than biots too.

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For me, the elk/moose/deer tail on a stimmy seems to be more of a secondary source of floatation rather than a part of the insect its intending to imitate.  I have tried a pattern with biots tied front and rear and rubber legs in the thorax, I think it was called a terranasty or something like that?  I fished it on the Castle and found that the cutties there seemed to prefer a standard pattern.  YMMV, happy tying.

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Interesting observation Flyfisher.   About 4 years ago, I changed all my stimmies by clipping off all the hackle on the underside to make it float lower in the film.  I felt that my strike ratio about doubled, but as you know, that can be a very subjective statistic.

 

Anybody else have thoughts on this.

 

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44 minutes ago, pokerfish said:

Interesting observation Flyfisher.   About 4 years ago, I changed all my stimmies by clipping off all the hackle on the underside to make it float lower in the film.  I felt that my strike ratio about doubled, but as you know, that can be a very subjective statistic.

 

Anybody else have thoughts on this.

 

Depends on someone’s experience. IMO if you are newer and can’t mend as well, dry flies sink. High floating flies help compensate for that. 

If you watch stones, they sit low on the water.  So I do as poker does/ most of my stones are foam body anyways.   They sit in the film rather than on top.

I let stones sink a bit if I can’t mend the seam well.  Fish still eat them.  Have been broken off by freight trains doing it that way. Mind you, that’s mostly at dusk/dark.

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