Sulphurs w/ egg sacs

[Weesh]

After witnessing my first suplhur hatch tonight, I am a bit confused about the life cycle. Do only the spinners carry the bright orange egg sacs, or do the duns carry them after the emergent stage? I am curious to know if you guys tie in the egg sacs, or if you don't think it matters. I was undergunned tonight, having only a few sulphurs in my box, which were all upright wing duns. I would have gladly paid a hefty price for a few emergers , most of which the fish were eating. I caught three on the dries , the biggest fell for a dun pattern on the upswing with the wings and hackle clipped very short. Needless to say, I am now a big fan of sulphur hatches, that was a cool spectacle. I apologize if this has been covered in the past, Im just a little confused.

 

[bam]

Not sure but I'd say the egg sacs would only be on the returning females. They probably aren't too important. I carry spent wing spinners, a parachute emerger and a parachute dry. They seem to cover all the bases.

From what I experience, they emerge throughout the day, spend a few days in the trees and return at dusk to mate and lay eggs. The first few days you see them I'd use an emerger, but once they're in full force I'd switch to a dry and then a spinner the last hour of light..

 

[Weesh]

Thats exactly what i'm confused about. I saw emergers and spinnners in the last hour of daylight. The fish that were rising were very spooky in the flat glides, and I had a hard time getting them to take a dun. The fish in the faster moving waters were feeding too, but I didnt have any emergers or nymps. Would it have made a difference if was tossing a spinner w/ egg sac to the risers? Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this.

 

[troutslammer]

when you saw the rises , was it just a dimple ? meaning just the top of the head and tail coming out of the water ? if it was a a splashy rise they were taking floating duns , i would tie some up parachute style and forget the eggs sacks , the females deposit them into the water after mating which is close to dark , sulfur emerger , size 14 caddis hook , med. ginger tail (tied in down lower on the hook bend than normal ,) pheasant tail fibers wraped 3/4 of shank , yellow ball of dry fly dubbing , hackle the front side of the dubbing ball toward hook eye , the hackle holds it just under the film like a sulfur getting ready to emerge and they hit that fly with great spead and aggression (they think it is getting ready to take off ..lol)

 

[bam]

slammer gave good advice. The sulphers were both coming off in greater numbers and others were returning to lay eggs. I've tied emergers and spinners in tandem when the trout were really on in the evenings and do much better on the spinners. I think they're a much easier meal, but almost any other time of day you'll do better on an emerger.

I tie my emergers just like you would a parachute dry, but with a curved hook and z-lon for a shuck. You can also add a buggier dubbing for a thorax if you like.

 

[bam]

http://www.flyguysoutfitting.com/polyrustyspinner.html

 

[jrcll]

i tie some emergers spent wing style , sorta represents a drowned emeger and trout know they are an easy meal

 

[gutcutter]

bam that is an excellent recipe,
i tie mine very similarly but with a thinner clump of hiviz and tie it in like dumbell eyes. i often employ an 8/0 "thread only" abdomen counter ribbed with a 6/0 light tan thread or if i'm bored will use a rusty brown biot. the thorax is the same. for fast water or when it is almost pitch black out with bats hitting your line i will add a small fluoroscent parapost between the spent wings.
thumbs up man!
gut

 

[MKern]

I've never had to switch over to a spent-winged spinner for a sulphur.

I do carry a couple with egg sacks for which I use hot glue and not dubbing (the pictures on this site somewhere).

I think the fish aren't so picky during sulphurs and will take any stage of life.

 

[jayL]

I have seen one time where the fish were keyed on spinners, and the ones with egg sacs seemed to fish slightly better. Small sample size, so who knows. I carry one or two.

 

[bam]

I tie them the same way as you gutcutter.... figure 8 through the poly. I even carry a few with a bright post between the wings for low light conditions since that's about the only time I'll fish them

 

[bam]

A good visual of sulphers with egg sacs...

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=13545&forum=2

 

[troutslammer]

i tie my spinners same as the parachute except i use poly yarn (wht) for the spent wings instead of post and hackle , when it is almost dark and the spinners return i don't think they see the spent wing anyway , usually a parachute will catch many fish all through the hatch (duns &spinners)

 

[mickdleed]

Has anyone tried CDC for the wings in a sulphur dun pattern?....I have had luck with CDC for BWO's ...I just tied a few up last night and have not had a chance to test them yet.

 

[jayL]

It's called a CDC comparadun. It's a pretty effective pattern.

 

[ryguyfi]

I tried tying some cdc comparaduns last night and really have issues on how to attach my cdc. I try taking the fibers off the stem, and also folding over the stem and neither look too great... any tips?

 

[jayL]

Use hackle pliers to grab the tips of the barbules before stripping them off the stem. That keeps em even. Do a few I use a piece of scotch tape to hold the clumps as I harvest them. Once I get a few clumps on the tape, it's ready to use.

Or just get puffs.

Here's the link I always use to show people different CDC feather types, but it looks like it's down!!!

http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/hwcdc/

If anyone has a substitute link, it'd be appreciated. It was Hans Weilenmann's cdc feather types article from fly fisherman.

 

[ryguyfi]

do you typically use more than 1 cdc feather for 1 fly? Mine seem kind of sparse. I'll keep trying a few more today.

 

[jayL]

Depends on the feathers, but yeah.

 

[Alpabuck]

I always seem to use about 2-3 feathers I like a nice think wing and then I trim to form the shape.