Stonefly Hatch in Georgian Bay area (as well as the Beaver and Bighead)

[dcfoster]

I always here people about about how great stonefly nymphs are in the spring right when fishing for steelhead. Even if it's still early march, you can find stoneflies walking around on the snow.

What I don't hear about however, is the stonefly hatches. When do those big black stoneflies hatch?

I'm asking because I have a bunch of stimulators and I can't figure out when to use them?

 

[huronfly]

I've been quite successful in the past using stonefly nymphs for steelhead on Huron tribs. The only time I've seen them hatch was two years ago up in the Nipigon area, and that was the first week of June. Never seen much in the grey-bruce area either... although I've used stimi's for trout throughout the season when there was no apparent hatch and had success.

One fella in the past told me he hooked a couple steelhead on a dry stonefly in May on a south Huron trib.

 

[dcfoster]

That’s great to hear thanks! I just got a large order of stonefly nymphs so that makes me feel better. Which colours would you recommend?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[huronfly]

Black is all I've ever needed to use, size 12-6 depending on water clarity. There's been many times guys fishing bait would look at me enviously as I outfished them with it! LOL. I don't use this method anymore as I now prefer to swing flies, but they work very well, especially if everyone else is using roe.

 

[dcfoster]

Good story... that raises another question I had, how do I know when to switch from stoneflies when the ice is off to streamers? I caught a pretty big fall back rainbow last April with a mylar minnow but that was something I threw on at the last minute...

 

[huronfly]

Those black stoneflies have worked for me year round, you really can't go wrong fishing them at any time. As for streamers, they are definitely more productive once the water starts to warm up... and dropbacks can be more aggressive to streamers as well. But if you are after numbers I would drift those stoneflies and hold on tight.

 

[huronfly]

Got some good news DC, in the fall I moved to new place on one of the tribs to the Saugeen and I have been seeing quite a few smaller black stoneflies crawling around on the snow in the last few days! I would say about size 12 would be perfect. Looked just like this, maybe slightly larger: