Stone-ulator: Salmonfly Dry Fly Tying Tutorial

Benchside Sessions

Benchside Sessions is our fly tying series highlighting the patterns that we — as guides and shop staff — actually rely on day in and day out on the water. Every fly featured in this series is tied by someone on our team, chosen because it flat-out works. No fluff, no filler — just the flies we trust when it matters.

Materials

Watch the full tying tutorial on our YouTube channel:

🎥 Fly Fishing Unfiltered on YouTube

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Start the thread about 2/3rds down the hook shank and wrap back to just past the barb of the hook.
2. Tie in two pieces of round rubber legs in a V shape for the tail, and wrap the thread back to the 2/3rds starting point.
3. Tie in a length of copper wire for the rib towards the back of the fly, about to the barb of the hook, leaving a small gap between where the wire is tied in and where the tail starts.
4. Starting at the base of the tail, dub the body up to the 2/3rds point. Maintain a slim, even taper.
5. Tie in the Ginger hackle feather where the dubbing body ends and wrap back toward the tail with somewhat spaced-out wraps, ending where the wire is tied in.
6. Use the wire to trap the tip of the hackle and wrap the wire forward through the hackle back to the 2/3rds point, then secure with the thread.
7. Trim the hackle on the top of the fly to help the wing lie more flatly.
8. Build up a slight thread taper in front of the dubbing body so it is flush and won't prop up the wing.
9. Stack three CDC feathers so the tips are even — black on the bottom, tan in the middle, Dun on top (or simply use 3 Tan or Dun feathers) — and tie onto the top of the hook just in front of the dubbing body so the tips extend just past the butt end of the fly.
10. Optional: Tie in two pieces of round rubber legs in a V shape just behind the eye of the hook as antenna, mirroring the tail tie-in in reverse.
11. Tie in a section of round rubber leg on either side of the hook at the base of the wing feathers.
12. Tie in the black hackle feather at the base of the wing feathers.
13. Select 4 peacock herl fibers, trim the ends even, and secure on top of the hook about halfway between the rubber legs and the eye. Wrap thread back to the base of the wing feathers, then bring thread forward behind the eye.
14. Keeping the peacock fibers tightly together, wrap them forward toward the hook eye and secure with 2–3 thread wraps.
15. Wrap the black hackle feather forward toward the eye with slightly tighter wraps than the body hackle. Secure with 2–3 thread wraps, trim the tip, and whip finish.

About the Stone-ulator

I was having a little trouble coming up with something for a good Salmonfly pattern to do a video for, so I started picking Zach Carother's brain about it, asking what he's looking for as someone who spends a lot of time fishing and guiding on the Deschutes. The feedback I got from Zach was that he wants flies that sit a little lower in the water, and likes CDC wings. After our discussion, it was best not to try to reinvent the wheel — which is usually the right call when it comes to tying flies — so I went back to one of my favorite trout flies: the Stimulator. I wanted to make it look a little more "stoney" though, so I swapped out the hair tail for rubber legs to imitate the classic stonefly forked tail, and the hair wing for CDC so it would have more of a flat profile, and added front rubber legs for the antenna that stoneflies have.

The good thing about this fly is that it's lighter than the big foam Salmonfly patterns that are common these days, so it's a little easier to cast but still floats really well. It can also be easily adapted to look more like a Golden Stone by swapping the orange dubbing and peacock for golden brown Ice Dub, the black rubber legs for brown, and using a ginger or brown hackle on both the body and head.

The one downside is that because it is lighter than the foam patterns, it won't have as splashy a landing — which can attract fish to these bigger bugs — but that could also turn into a benefit once the fish have seen a lot of the big foam stuff. At the end of the day, I think it's important to remember that when you're tying flies, you can always pull from and combine existing patterns to come up with something that's just new or different enough to be interesting to both fish and yourself. Even if it doesn't necessarily deserve a new name, the most important thing is being able to adapt different techniques and materials to get to the outcome you're looking for.

About the Fly Tyer: Zack Borcher

Zack Borcher is an NWFFO staff member who has been fly fishing for decades and is a professional fly tyer, using his skills to fund his passion for the sport.