FFIM

Golden retriever, never caught a fish on them. Gave them all to a kid at the Upper Dam.

Sulphur s are such a conglomeration of different Mayflies that it’s difficult——-sometimes——- to see which Sulphur you’re actually imitating.

There are yellow Sulphurs that have an orangish tint to the body. There are Sulphur that have a greenish olive tint to the yellow body. And there are Sulphurs that have a straight yellowish abdomen.

And.......I’ve found trout to be very particular when trying to imitate each. I frequently hear some flufishers say “ Color doesn’t mean ####”. It’s all about presentation. I MO, presentation is key, but sometimes body color does come into play. Perhaps that’s why I carry Sulphurs in three different body colors.......and in sizes 16 to 20.

A good buddy of mine is partially color blind, and every year on the Spring Creeks he’d give me his Sulphur box, and I’d have to re-arrange his flies, as he had orangish ones mixed in with greenish olive ones and yellowish ones mixed in with the other two......
And he absolutely couldn’t tell the difference........but the trout could.

As to the Pale Evening Duns.......fish the Missouri some July evening, and you’ll swear by that fly forever, fwiw.

Dave M

PS.......For the Shawmut Cornutas they start out almost a chartreuse color ( hence the yellow), but almost immediately turn Olive.......so I always imitated them with a #14 BWO Sparkle Dun ( olive body), and cleaned up.

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"Fish the West every year. Life is short; and you'll be dead a long time." Chris Hutchins--2009

Maple Syrup and Doodle Bug - never caught a fish on either.

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"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." Albert Einstein

Another vote for the Hornberg. Absolutely useless to me.

I'll pile on the Hornberg, couldn't even get stocked brook trout to take one.
There enough of them in my tying stock boxes to last forever at this rate.

Maybe I've just never understood their relationship to Sulphurs. The flies I've been carrying and not fishing look like the attached and are nearly pure white, cream if you're generous. I don't think it ever occurred to me to fish them when what I saw on the water was what I would call a Sulphur. I have Sulphurs, they're pretty yellow and much smaller (18 to 24). So maybe it's just that I'm not knowing what I don't know.

That looks more like a Epheron Lukon to me..... aka the White Fly. Maybe more of a Light Cahill. Not a Sulphur

Dave M

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"Fish the West every year. Life is short; and you'll be dead a long time." Chris Hutchins--2009

Yes, the White fly is different from the Sulfurs. The West Branch has both but at different times. Sulfurs early June and the white Fly in Early July roughly. The White Fly is larger, like a 14. Typically they are around for just a few days.

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You see that dimple way over there? Well I couldn't hit it with a cruise missile.

AH. Well then. Thanks for clearing that up. I will hope to be at the right place someday to use the PMD successfully. Until then, I’ll keep shuffling them into the crummy, worn out fly boxes instead of leaving them home.

There is ( was) a tremendous white fly hatch at Shawmut also. I love the White Fly as the you have today's emergence simultaneous with the spinner of fall of the previous day's bugs. White comparadun or parachute...

The LaFontain flys, deep sparkle and emergent have never done it for me. Even though much of the time I have used them on LaFontain’s original waters the Farmington in Ct. Sulphers and Pale Evening Duns overlap quite often there making trying to figure out what they want and are taking very frustrating. Maybe be a cast of multiple dries is in order.

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The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.

Sir John Buchan

Many years ago, one of the first flies I ever tied, I copied from a "Field and Stream" magazine. It was a pretty, yellow and black, bumblebee; it looked so realistic, I thought it would be a fish slayer...unfortunately, for me, I never caught a fish on that fly, but I did learn a valuable fly-fishing lesson...like some dogs, that just don't hunt; there are some flies, (for me), that just don't fish!

Sparkle pupa here too.

White Flies at Shawmut? You sure Titleguy?