white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (flyflkr) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:44:47 GMT

I've fished the White Fly on the Yellow Breeches many times so I'm somewhat familiar with that hatch. Why is it there is no need for an emerger pattern? Just curious. I know of a fly tyer in Pennsylvania that ties an emerger for the white fly. I read something once, might have been by Ed Shenk, that said use sort of a white variant type fly through pretty much the entire hatch. I remember one night a friend I was fishing with siened the water before we left after fishing the white fly...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (crcaddis) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:16:33 GMT

For duns and spinners, I paint my hook shanks with white epoxy paint and use white materials, though I'd have to say that a white crackleback works just about as well as anything. Let it float dead drift, pull it under and let it swing, or strip it back. Cheers.

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (DrakeBob) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:38:15 GMT

One of my favorite hatches. Like pittendrigh, I swing a wet fly. The hatch on the Housatonic in CT is always prolific and is sometimes described as biblical. There are nights and places on the river when the bugs are so thick that adding your dry fly to the mix can be counterproductive. It's like throwing a handful of pellets to a hatchery fish and hoping he takes the one with 90' of fly line attached. I've never liked the odds. So, at times like those, as pittendrigh...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (Cane Head) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:46:49 GMT

I tied my spinners up on Mustad's 94831 #16 and #14 w/grizzly hackle for tail, white poly abdomen, gray beaver for thorax, and white poly spent wings. I used the 94831 because it's a 2x fine/2x long shank version of the venerable 94840. Only reason I mention the wiggle nymph is due to the length of the naturals. I got some wild takes fishing the nymph - sometimes the strikes were so vicious they tore the back part of the fly off. Fishing the spinner fall is a definite lesson in...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (Eric Peper) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:47:36 GMT

The natural is about a "size 13," so I'd have both 12s and 14s available. Honestly, I think pattern is irrelevant as long as it's all creamy white. Very buoyant materials are a bonus as you don't want to be messing with the fly in the dark. At least one upper midwest site recommends an all white Irresistible, but, at least for me, clipped deer hair bodies have too high a fussy factor. Last time I fished the hatch (long time ago) I used a tail of cream hackle fibers,...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (troutbumwannab) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:39:12 GMT

Dear Cane, Pittendrigh and Eric - thanks for the tips.

I'm into my second year tying so I seriously doubt I'll be tying any wiggle tails. I never fished this hatch before and it does sound like a tough one.

I used to live in MI and every year, my parents took the family to Grayling to take a lovely canoe trip down the Au Sable in Sept to see the colors. I caught my first trout there at age 10 by draging a Rapala behind the canoe right through the Wholy waters (I...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (Eric Peper) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:42:33 GMT

Vince Marinaro used to fish the spinner stage with the fly almost constantly in motion. I needled him one night about fishing a "dragging fly" during the Ephoron spinner fall at the pavilion stretch of the Yellow Breeches at Allenberry. His reply was "How the H*ll else are you going to tell if a fish rises to your fly?"

The above advice re the absence of an emerger stage is right...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (pittendrigh) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:04:54 GMT

We get those flies here in Montana--late in the season and way down low on the rivers,
where it's silty from irrigation. Like the flies we call Sulfurs here, they pop up on
the surface for a half a second and then they're gone (aggravating for sure....what
a waste of a big white mayfly :-))

Any big, light colored wet fly seems to work just fine.
Because they hatch so late in the day here, the few times I've got into'em
I swung the fly across...

Re: white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (Cane Head) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:51:29 GMT

There isn't an emerger stage for leukons. The phases to fish are the nymphal, an aggravating dun stage, and a more aggravating spinner stage.

For nymphing I used a wiggle nymph pattern with white abdomen, gray thorax, mallard wing case. I tied the abdomen on one hook, lashed it to the second with heavy mono, and used the leading hook as the thorax and head. Leukon nymphs are burrowing nymphs and quite big. Best time to fish the nymph is when you see the first dun on the...

white fly (ephoron leukon) nymph / emerger

feeds@yuku.com (troutbumwannab) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:25:07 GMT

I'm planning a trip to the Au Sable's Wholly Waters this August and can't find a recipe for a white fly nymph or emerger.

Anyone out there have one you'd like to share or can you point me in the right direction?

Tied up a bunch of CdC duns and spinners as well as calf tall post parachutes, but I can't find nymphs or emergers.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris