Stoneflies - Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park

The huge Salmonfly adults deposit their eggs late inteh afternoon and on into the night.

Flyfishingdvd’s Imitating Aquatic Insects: Stoneflies will teach you what you need to know about stoneflies and how to imitate their behavior.
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The Golden Stonefly adults deposit their eggs mostly at dusk or later. Fishing a dry imitation can be effective later in the afternoon at times, however, cloudy, overcast days can bring on the egg laying activity earlier in the day.

You will find that Yellowstone has a huge population and diversity of stoneflies. Many of its streams are perfectly suited for them.

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Importance as Trout Food:
In spite of the quantity of stoneflies in the streams, they are not always the most important trout food available to the trout because of the word available. They are not usually available. They are usually hidden down between and beneath the rocks that make up the streams substrate. When they feed, in some situations; when they molt, in some situations; and when they hatch in all situations, they are available for the trout to eat.

Nymphs:
Occasionally, the small stonefly nymphs get accidentally caught by the streams current and tumble downstream. Some, mostly the small species, are a part in the behavioral drift. It’s certainly possible to catch trout on an imitation of the nymph at times other than during the hatch but it may well produce less satisfactory results.

The Hatch:
Stoneflies hatch out of the water, not in the water like most other aquatic insects. Most all stoneflies crawl out on the shoreline, rocks or other objects that are protruding out of the water to hatch. It is during this migration that they are most available for the trout to eat.

Imitating the Hatch:
You should imitate this behavior by retrieving your nymph imitation on the bottom towards the bank. Fishing from the bank and retrieving your fly back to shore is usually more effective than the typical nymphing on the swing and high sticking methods are. Keep in mind taht the stoneflies move to the quieter water along the shor or pockets where rocks extend out of the water as opposed to crawling out of fast water. You want to fish the calmer portion of the water that is adjacent to the fast water in which the stoneflies live.

Adults:
Stoneflies live for a relatively long time out of the water. They mate out of the water. Unlike mayflies, for example, stoneflies can eat and drink as adults. Just because you find a lot of stoneflies in the bushes and trees along the banks of a stream doesn’t necessarily mean you can catch trout on an imitation of the adult. The only time the adults are going to be available for the trout to eat is when the females are depositing their eggs.

Egg Ovipositing:

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