Vinestbrew Stonefly
Vine Man - You had asked for a tute on a stonefly nymph so I spent some time today putting this together. Understand that there are many variations on tying a stonefly - everyone has their own way of doing it from woven bodies, extaz for the thorax, egg suckers, and on and on and on. What I put together here is how I generally tie 'em but once again - I always seem to change things around - depending on my mood. Some think that the way I tie them more represents a Hex nymph but the big difference if that the stonefly has two wingcases and a separate head bud. The Hex generally only has one wing case and when tied - most times the wing case is tied over the eyes in one step but again - everyone does it different. Again the stonefly has many variations and this is just a guideline for you to follow. Perhaps some guys or gals will post some pics of their ties to give you some more ideas. Hopefully this helps you out - and you can substitute materials or methods where you see fit. It may be more detail than is necessary but here it is anyway.
1. Materials: Hook Used: Tiemco 200R size
Vinyl D-Rib
.035 Lead Wire
Black Goose Biots
Super Fine Dubbing - Black
Aftershaft fibers off a black saddle hackle
Ostrich Herl
Turkey Feather ( The way I create the wing cases involves folding them over themselves. To do this you should first coat them with clear varnish so that the fibers don't separate when folded. Let dry before tying. You can use other types of coatings as well.)
2. Start thread near the rear of the hook and dub on a small ball of fine black dubbing. 
3. Tie in two goose biots on either side of the hook shank When tying these in finish wrap the thread up tight to the dubbed ball. This will help separate the biots.
4. Form a tapered body using .035 lead wire. To do this cut two pieces of lead wire about two inches long. On each of them, cut a sharp taper on one end. Tie them in one at a time starting at the rear. When you get to where it should end as seen on the pic, cut the excess off again on a sharp taper. Do the same for the other side. Then cover the lead entirely with wraps of thread. If the lead wire wants to spin on the hook shank while your tying this in, use a pair of needle nose pliers to keep it in check by squeezing it from the top down. What this will do is create a tapered body on the fly - thin when looked at from the side and wide when looked at from the top or bottom.
5. Tie in a strand of ostrich herl and the vinyl D-Rib at the rear. 
6. Wrap the D-Rib forward followed by the herl and tie off each as you go. Sometimes before I wrap the herl forward I put a light coat of superglue or clear head cement on the D-Rib to keep the herl in place.
7. Cut off a piece of the turkey about 3/16" and tie it in. 
8. Clip off a small amount of the aftershaft fibers on a saddle hackle and tie it in on the side of the hook shank where the turkey is tied in. Repeat for the other side. 
9. Dub in front of the legs you just tied in, then fold the turkey over and tie off in front of the dubbing. Trim off the turkey. It helps if you use a toothpick to fold the turkey over - lay the toothpick on the turkey where you want the fold to be, then fold the turkey over it. pull the 'pick out before you tie in.
10. Repeat this previous step one more time. 
11. Tie in another piece of turkey slightly smaller in width than that of the wingcases and tie this in. Also tie in the eyes by figure 8 wrapping around the eye shaft. 
12. Dub the head area and fold the turkey that was just tied in over the dubbing and between the eyes and tie off. 
13. Clip off the turkey, whip finish.
post edited by steely34 - 2009/09/24 16:55:20