Upping The Stonefly Game 25Mar20

Early season golden stones are evident and active on the freestone rivers. My typical tie for the stonefly is Pat's Rubberlegs, a strong fly but a bit brutish, or the 20 Incher. I went to Mike Mercer's epoxy back techniques for the BH Biot Poxyback Golden Stone nymph here. I'm trying to improve my stonefly choices and find the right fly for the Ark and the Blue. I like it, but only the test of time in fishing it will tell. If it works I can expand coloration to mimic those found later in the year here. I worry a bit on the durability of the turkey biot tail and antennae... they are so accurate but perhaps rubber might suffice. Dunno what's going on with the over-saturated images - sorry; you get the idea though.

I was enamored of and impressed with purple stonefly productivity last year on the WY waters and always wanted to replicate something like them for Colorado rivers. Recently the awesome tie-master Craven showed spinning Cog de Leon on a stonefly so I tied my variant - a curved hook, double bead, Coq de Leon in electric purple . It's awesome and continued my work with biots... it's the Dubl Trubl. I also include below my other stonefly for 2020 - a version of the BH 20 incher; I doubled the beads and try to hide them. It came out fine and juicy. These will sink like stones; heh heh. Gotta get out on the Ark freestone in May with these and some caddis.

Greg tied a few nice iron sallies - they look simpler to tie than the Mercer biot poxyback above.