Sulphurs!

[turiprap]

I know I'm jumping the gun a little here, even in a normal year - and in my area, the hatches have not been normal -, but I'm getting excited about the impending arrival of my favorite mayfly hatch of the year. From nymph right through spinner fall, this is really a fun hatch. It can last danged near a month, too, and it's almost a certainty that it'll go three weeks beginning some time in late May. The most fun for me lies in fishing on the surface. I carry an emerger pattern with a CDC wing and soft hackle, a sparkle dun (Comparadun with Zelon shuck tail), a conventional comparadun, a Harrop hairwing dun with a turkey biot body and an Orange Julius for this hatch. Can you tell that I'm a little carried away? Sometimes, though, it seems like individual fish will have individual tastes and will totally ignore a pattern that other fish have been hammering.

Do you folks have any advice to offer a Sulphur addict?

[Ufatz]

Don't forget the various "cripple" patterns. They have worked for me when nothing else does on some pretty sophisticated trout.

[turiprap]

Ufatz, you make an excellent point. I think the emerger pattern that I use may be rough enough looking ot serve as a cripple, but I should look into something more specific.

[bonefish]

Amazing. When I lived in River Falls, a carried the EXACT same flies with me every June. The only addition I had was a combo Pheasant tail/emerger thing I made. Although, when the hatch is on, it really didn't matter too much what I was throwing as long a the size was right. I would say that the OJ and a CDC sparkle dun were my top performers, which is kind of funny since the OJ really doesn't look like a kinnie sulphur.

[so haaad]

Let's see your favorite patterns...

[WxGuy]

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Let's see your favorite patterns...

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Yeah, I'm all for that. A couple years ago I had an amazingly frustrating day (still tons of fun of course) on the water throwing everything I had at the fish and they rose all around my flies.

I've tied up some emerger/klinkhammer patterns and parachute sulphurs in the hopes of success this year, but we'll see.

[turiprap]

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I would say that the OJ and a CDC sparkle dun were my top performers, which is kind of funny since the OJ really doesn't look like a kinnie sulphur.

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What a great forum this is! You're absolutely right that the "Kinni sulphur" and an orange julius don't look much alike. The natural bugs have a nearly apple-green body. In my opinion the OJ is a brilliantly designed fly in that it has a lot of just plain fishy elements in it, not the least of which is the orange in the thorax. The second point here is that it always pays to get a good close up look at the naturals. They can look far different in the hand than they do ten feet in the air with their wings buzzing.

[macgruber]

my advice to all sulphur fishers would be to echo what turiprap mentioned about body color...... i've been standing on the rush while the river is boiling, casting through a run with 50 rising fish in it and none will even look at the yellow sulphur i'm drifting through...... get some apple green or chartreusse green poly yarn and tie the sulphur imitations with that instead of the yellow sulphurs you find in most fly shops....... it never seems to matter what stage insect i've got on, as long as it's green, not yellow......