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Here's one I tied a few years ago that is roughly based on a Sylvester Nemes pattern ...

Bill,
That is a really awesome pattern! Come to think of it, there are not too many soft-hackle patterns out there that even suggest stonefly but yours really rings out true! I hate to be a real baffoon about this but what is a Skwala? A certain species of stonefly I presume but, I have never heard that term before! Someone fill me in!
Neophyte D.

Wait a minute....I said stonefly. I meant salmonfly. Sorry, it's been a long day!

tie2fish wrote:Here's one I tied a few years ago that is roughly based on a Sylvester Nemes pattern ...

Whoa. That's handsome.

Paparex; That "Twitchy Chicken" pattern looks pretty killer. Good for swinging through water columns.

tie2fish wrote:Here's one I tied a few years ago that is roughly based on a Sylvester Nemes pattern ...

I particularly like the tapered body, the question is do the trout?

Here is a Skwala Flymph just off the vise..
IMGP1581 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

A few Skwala adults were on the Crooked River last week. Fish were ignoring them in favor of tiny midge patterns. I tied this up to fish below a Skwala dry next time I see them. A Mustad 9672 #10 with a Black Flex-floss tail, Dark Brown Hare-tron body hackled with a Brown Hen Back feather.

DOUGSDEN,
A Salmonfly is the largest stone we have in the US. https://www.west-fly-fishing.com/index. ... -salmonfly A huge heavy black chenille rubber leg nymph can be lots of fun as well as a Brooks Stone nymph.

Most of the large Stoneflies I have observed crawl in their nymphal shuck and emerge in very shallow water. The adults apparently can live for some time and certainly the females oviposit after dark. A good imitation is a brown bodied rubber legs dredged along the bottom. I’m guessing the fish take them as dead adults
Since the imitation needs to be fished on a dead drift. I imagine a very large soft hackle, say a ten or even a eight might do the trick. In my experience a Simulator can wok at dusk. But for me this is not my style of fishing a soft hackle on a seven foot rod!

The problem with a wet fly, stonefly is that it is a nymph or drowned adult. Due to the behavior of the stonefly (except Yellow Sallies) one does not see stoneflies mid stream. The nymph can be heavily weighted and fished on a dead drift in rocky, rough water. It is not the English chalk stream experience I dream for. But the pattern works. I bounce them through the rocks and gravel. The long hackle makes it a soft hackle or wet fly. The pattern fools many fish and I fish it both ways. Change up colors and sizes for every specie of stonefly

Skwala vs.Salmonfly
IMGP1583 by William Lovelace, on Flickr