Brooks' Stonefly Nymph

[tie2fish]

In some e-mail correspondence about his thread on a Golden Stonefly Nymph pattern, Lance sent me the recipe for a Charlie Brooks stonefly nymph, along with a sketch of it done by Dave Whitlock. Here is my take on it, a variation since I used variegated brown/yellow chenille in lieu of brownish yellow yarn for the body.

[DUBBN]

Very nice interpretation.

[Soft-hackle]

Sweet, Bill. That should work very nicely.

Mark

[William Anderson]

Nicely done. Brooks certainly understood the value of a lively flymph. Though he was right to call it a nymph as it was not actively rising to hatch...it's not hard to spot a flymph when you see one. And this interpretation is killer.

[Mataura mayfly]

Usually I am not a fan of chenille- but it looks good here. Like the open wraps of the hackle- like two separate rows of legs, the colour change at the thorax and the taper of the body.
Top marks all around.

[Ruard]

Hi Bill,

Nice fly and nice tying!!

You call this fly the Charlie Brooks Stonefly, but I could not find it in the two books of Brooks??

What was the book of C.Brooks??

Do you know why he could have put in the pattern the two grey herls of the oistrich on the base of the hackle?? He insisted in making flytying as simple as possible. There must be an important reason for this??

Greeting

[JohnP]

Brooks tied a black stonefly nymph to represent the Pteronarcys Californica, or giant stonefly nymph. It is tied with a black wool body and brown-dyed grizzly hackle in two separated turns, with ostrich herl at the base to represent the gills. It also has a copper wire rib and a separated tail of crow fibers, and was heavily weighted. Many of his nymphs were tied "in the round" rather than with a distinct top and bottom. Hope that helps.

[letumgo]

Ruard - It is my understanding that the ostrich herl is included in the pattern to imitate gills on the natural insect.

Bill - I have generally seen Brook's Stonefly Nymphs tyed in black, with a yellow throrax. Terrific variation. The brown & yellow variegated chenille is a perfect choice of imitating the colors of a golden stonefly.

[DUBBN]

Brooks tied a black stonefly nymph to represent the Pteronarcys Californica, or giant stonefly nymph. It is tied with a black wool body and brown-dyed grizzly hackle in two separated turns, with ostrich herl at the base to represent the gills. It also has a copper wire rib and a separated tail of crow fibers, and was heavily weighted. Many of his nymphs were tied "in the round" rather than with a distinct top and bottom. Hope that helps.

Thanks John. I knew the tail was not tied with goose biots, and for the life of me, I couldnt remeber what it was tied with. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

[gingerdun]

You call this fly the Charlie Brooks Stonefly, but I could not find it in the two books of Brooks??
What was the book of C.Brooks??
Do you know why he could have put in the pattern the two grey herls of the oistrich on the base of the hackle?? He insisted in making flytying as simple as possible. There must be an important reason for this??

Ruard,
Here is the Charlie Brooks recipe that Bill was working from. As you can see, the gray ostrich represented gills. The asterisk indicated that this was an original Brooks pattern.

Lance