Skalla Stoneflies on the Yuba
January and February bring a great winter time trout food, the Skalla Stonefly. Luckily our local valley river, the Yuba, has this very such insect.
Like many stoneflies the Skwalla crawls out to the rocks and foliage to emerge from it's nymphal case. A good sign of a stonefly hatch is empty nymph husks clinging to foliage. Next time you are out on the Yuba look at the bushes and other river side plants.
After the Skwalla's mate the females develope a large round black egg sack at the rear of their body. Most Skwalla fly patterns usually have some type of black foam bulb or dubbing to imitate the egg sack. Look at the fly above the natural in the picture below, notice the black foam egg sack on the fly. Also look at the egg sack on the natural on the picture above.
The fly above is called a Topsy Turvey Skwalla fly. I think that it is the best pattern that we carry. We have other nice patterns but the Topsy is the closest to the real thing.
After the female developes the egg sack she flies to the water to deposite the eggs. Once the female flies to the water she dips her rear into the water and releases the eggs. While the female is depositing the eggs, she sits low in the surface film and is subject to hungry trout. The Skwalla imitations like the Topsy Turvey are designed to sit low in the film as well, therefore no large amounts of hackle to make the fly ride high in the surface film. The trout love these large meaty Skwallas and gulp them up like quarter-pounders with cheese. The grabs are splashy and fun. Last Sunday the Skwallas became active, started flying around and landing on the water around 4pm. If you have anytime to go fishing within the next three weeks try the Yuba River and fish the Skwalla hatch.
Have fun out there.
Reply With Quote
[/url]
Your Skwalla pattern looks like it sits just right in the surface film. I'm glad to hear that you had good success on top. Fishing a dry fly is great fun and the Yuba trout fight hard. 
Bookmarks