late winter/spring flies

[geebee]

Whilst on the creek on Sunday I saw a single stonefly on a mid stream rock - size 12/14 black body with a grey wing .

I've seen them elsewhere - I use an x-caddis with a grey deerhair wing.

I think it may be an early dark stonefly rather than a little black stonefly ?

 

[poopdeck]

Comparadun it is! Looks easy. I went to the store and picked up some deer body hair. I was surprised to see the different kinds of deer hair. There was deer hair, fine deer hair, coastal deer hair, and all kinds of dyed deer hair. I bought some called dark dun hair, comparadun hair, natural deer hair and fine deer hair.

What would be the best choice for a comparadun fly? What sizes should I tie? Is a Comparadun also called a yellow sally?

 

[troutpoop]

A compardun is a style of fly. A yellow sally represents a yellow stonefly. You can tie a comparadun to represent almost any dry.
I personally like coastal deer hair. Not all hair is equal. I like a light hair for the sulpher hatches and a darker hair for BWOs etc. Check with someone at the fly shop to see if they can help you. I take them out of the package and look for tiny black tips and the hair to be the same length.
There are a bunch of really good tying videos on youtube of how to tie a comparadun. Probably the easiest to tie. They sit low in the water and are easy to see.

 

[troutpoop]

Another dry you may want to consider that fishes well and is easy to tie is the "usual" by Fran Betters. There are videos online how to tie them. They are tied in a similar fashion to the comparadun.
I tie them in different colors, yellow, original white, BWO, black etc. They can be tied really small too. I have them down to size 24 to represent midges.

 

[Chaz]

poopdeck wrote:
So I can tie bwo's without wings and they will work? No wings it is then.

I tie BWOs' with a thread body and hackle with a tail, then clip the hackle that's under the hook, it will work when the catskill ties won't

 

[fritz]

I've had good results with a stonefly nymph like dc410 is showing.

 

[poopdeck]

Thanks to everybody who chimed in to help. I tied a bunch of comparaduns in different styles and sizes. They were an easy tie and it did not take long to fill a box with them. cant wait to try them out. Thanks again for the guidance.

 

[tyeager]

another option other than cdc, hackle, or deer hair wings is to tie with snowshoe rabbits foot. Works really well for emergers, is relatively inexpensive, is died to many colors, and gives a great "buggy look". Its also pretty easy to work with.

Depending on who you ask they will tell you to use different parts of the rabbit foot. I recommend splitting the foot between the toes and using the fibers from the middle of the foot. (ie mid way between the heel and toes). It will float pretty well and, in my opinion, is much easier to tie smaller flies with than deer hair.