Looking for Adult Crane Fly Pattern

I've had success using a parachute Adams while fish were rising to Craneflies. I've done this on both Penn's Creek and Oil Creek. You might try substituting Australian Oppossum for the dark grey dubbing usually used on an Adams.

Tom
 
The dubbing isn't the issue. These things have little skinny legs. Pre tied legs can be purchased from Orvis but they appear to be thicker with more strands than he cranes I bought from Jonas.
 
Has anyone seen trout really key in and feed selectively on the big brown crane flies? I never have. I've never seen emergences of them in any numbers. You see one here, one there...

The little (size 18) ones with yellow bodies hatch in enough numbers that the trout feed on them just like they would on BWOs or other hatch. It's worth tying a pattern for those.

I'm not so sure it's worth tying a pattern for the big brown ones. But if you want to tie an imitation of those, just tie a simple spider pattern. Ginger hackle fibers for a tail. Ginger hackle tied over-sized. And brown thread body. Done.
 
I've had some luck with them when I can't figure out the fish. Sometime the fish are feeding on top and I've tried every dry and emerger I've got. The crane fly is what I'll try next.
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:
Our own Chaz ties the best cranefly pattern I've ever used. It's from the swap archives here in the tying forum.

Gotta give credit where credit is due - it's a great fly.

Chaz's cranefly
Click to expand...
I do like Chaz's fly, I'm going to try it as well. I just love all the different patterns you get to see and try on here. There are so many good tyers that post their ties, you know tried and true.
 
Here's the basic crane fly that I tie: yellow or rust colored body with hackle tip wings and a long webby saddle hackle palmered through it and trimmed sparse. The more crumpled up this fly gets, the better and more realistic it looks. 🙂
 

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This may not be germane to the Adult Cranefly topic but I thought I would share...while pumping a stream around a project last week I saw what I though was a leech undulating flattened through a pool flowing downstream with the current. Looked like an S shape wriggling the entire few seconds I saw it. It then came up into a riffle and shortened, fattened and was now a cranefly larvae. So while a walts worm looks like a cranefly larvae when tied large, really when they drift through the column, they swim. and are flat and curves like an S.

 
So perhaps a swimming nymph hook would work well for that.
 
I can't post pics but try one with a detached/seperrat foam body tied on a needle instead of a hook . Also a minnow needle will work to tie turkey quill knots or a crochet hook.
 
A Delta Wing Caddis (from Fly Fisher's Paradise) and a reverse-tied pattern from LLH fly shop have worked well for me. These were yellow/orange/tan, depending on the fly color. Both are easy to tie. Sizes were #14 and #16. I found them to be most important on Spring Creek and LLH.

The knotted legs patters look great, but they seem like overkill to me. It's a cost/benefit thing, IMO.
 
I don't know where the hook size came from, It's tied on a # 18 or # 20 depending on how late in the season it is.
I also use gray olive and pale yellow, depending on the time of the year. But the best pattern is orange, as in sulphur orange, a blend of yellow and sulphur dubbing.
 
troutbert wrote:
Has anyone seen trout really key in and feed selectively on the big brown crane flies? I never have. I've never seen emergences of them in any numbers. You see one here, one there...

The little (size 18) ones with yellow bodies hatch in enough numbers that the trout feed on them just like they would on BWOs or other hatch. It's worth tying a pattern for those.

I'm not so sure it's worth tying a pattern for the big brown ones. But if you want to tie an imitation of those, just tie a simple spider pattern. Ginger hackle fibers for a tail. Ginger hackle tied over-sized. And brown thread body. Done.
Click to expand...

TB,
You've probably seen me use them, though not on brookie streams. The thing is on the LV streams they hatch in huge numbers this time of the year, and I've seen them on many limestone streams, including Fishing Creek in Lamar. Every place I've used them I've caught fish, in 14 states.
They inimtate an emerging baetis and other small emergers so it's prety versitle. One thing I'll add there are terrestrial crane flies, and I've never seen trout take them.
I've also been stumped as to what trout were taking and tied on a crane fly after much toying around with other stuff, to find on the first cast the trout are taking the crane flies. That doesn't mean though that it's what the trout think they are, only that they take the pattern.
 
Chaz,
My question was about the big brown craneflies. Not the little yellow ones.
 
I've never seen trout feed on the very large brown ones.

In my experience, they don't seem to emerge in large enough numbers or consistently enough for fish to key on them.
 
I seethat now that you've pointed it out, but no I've never seen trout taking them, I think those may be among the terrestrial crane flies.
 
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