{"id":4821,"date":"2020-10-07T20:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T18:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/troutfishing-germany.com\/?p=4821"},"modified":"2020-10-07T19:48:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T17:48:23","slug":"trockenfliegen-xxl-steinfliegen-an-der-wutach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/troutfishing-germany.com\/en\/2020\/10\/trockenfliegen-xxl-steinfliegen-an-der-wutach\/","title":{"rendered":"dry fly XXL \u2013 stoneflies in the Black Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most memorable days this year, was my first encounter with big stoneflies.<\/strong> We don\u2019t have them in the chalk streams of my region, and so far only once have I seen big stonefly nymphs in a river in South Tyrol. Back then I picked one of the dry nymph shells from a stone and embedded it in resin \u2013 it still sits on my desk and I admire it daily, they are incredibly large and beautiful insects.<\/p>\n

My buddy Patrick had told me stories of stonefly hatches in the Wutach River where he fishes, up in the Black Forest. I imagined how thrilling it must be to fish this wild river, away from villages and roads, and cast giant dry flies to intensly colored native brown trouts\u2026.\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

preparations<\/h4>\n

When I received an SMS sometime in May, in which Patrick asked if I wanted to join him for a stonefly session, I did not hesitate a second! In preparation of that little fishing trip, I had quickly tied some stonefly nymphs, but how would I imitate a stonefly on the water? Searching the internet did not help much \u2013 most people were fishing foam flies similar to Chernobyl-Ants, which I really don\u2019t like\u2026 can\u2019t tell you why, but a dry fly consisting entirely of plastic, does not feel good to me.<\/p>\n

I finally came up with something consisting of a big bulk of CDC on a d21 hook, some bucktail and a rooster hackle. It floated well, had a diffuse silhouette and cast well even with a thin tippet on a 4wt rod\u2026 I was satisfied with the result.<\/p>\n

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a richly set table<\/h4>\n

Arriving at the parking site after a two hours drive, I immediately spotted the first big stonefly. Completely fascinated, I chased it with my camera almost forgetting about the fishing. But it would not remain the only stonefly that day, they were sitting on the stones and gras near the river bank, sometimes in clumps of two or three.<\/p>\n

But stoneflies were by far not the only insects that day\u2026 there were swarms of cherry spinners and various other mayflies in all sizes and colors. On top there were numerous beetles and tiny mosquitos \u2013 the table was richly set for the trouts.<\/p>\n