Michigan Flies

Flies / Dry fly

Sly Sister Stone

A

A CDC-winged adult early black stonefly for the egg-laying flights on warm late-winter afternoons, when females beat their wings continuously on the surface. Fish it noon to 4 pm on the Muskegon and Pere Marquette from late February through April for resident trout and the occasional rising steelhead.

#12–14Black with CDC wingclear watermiddayafternoon
What the pattern looks like
Reference photos of the Sly Sister Stone tied by others, shared by their photographers. Not our flies; our own product photos replace these as they are shot.

Photo © the photographer, used with permission

Season
Months this pattern is in play across Michigan, derived from what it imitates.
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Imitates

The naturals

Fish it for
Brown troutRainbow trout (resident)Steelhead

Setups

  • Dry fly
How it's tied
A
Sly Sister Stone (adult). Matt Supinski's CDC-winged early black stonefly for the first surface feeding of the year, when little black stones crawl the snowbanks and flutter onto the water on sunny March afternoons. Our own write-up of the standard tie, checked against the sources below. Recipe by Matthew Supinski, Hallowed Waters (2024).

Materials

Hook
Daiichi 1260 2X-long curved dry-fly hook, sizes 12-14
Thread
Black, 8/0 or 70 denier
Body
Hareline black rabbit dubbing, slim
Wing
CDC feathers tied flat over the body, light dun or dark dunSupinski uses darker wings on bright days and lighter wings under dark skies
Head
Grizzly hackle palmered through the front third as a head/leg collar

Steps

  1. 1.Lay a thread base along the curved shank to a point above the barb.
  2. 2.Dub a thin noodle of black rabbit and wind a slim body forward over about two-thirds of the shank.
  3. 3.Select two or three CDC feathers of the shade suited to the light and tie them in flat on top so the tips reach just past the hook bend, forming a low tent wing; trim the butts.
  4. 4.Tie in a grizzly hackle at the front of the wing.
  5. 5.Palmer the hackle forward through the head area in three or four close turns, then tie it off behind the eye.
  6. 6.Trim the hackle flat on the underside if you want the fly to sit lower in the film.
  7. 7.Build a small head, whip finish and treat the CDC with a powder floatant rather than gel.

From the tier

  • Supinski fishes a big fluffy CDC dry even when trout seem to be taking nymphs, on an 18-foot leader with 5-7 feet of 4X, delivered with a high puddle cast so it drifts drag-free in backwater seams; he avoids dry-dropper rigs over selective fish.
  • Early black stoneflies (Allocapnia and Taeniopteryx) run February through May on Midwest streams, with the best activity from about 1 to 4 pm on sunny afternoons once water reaches the mid-30s F.
  • Tim Flagler's Little Black Stonefly is the classic alternative: a CDC body, a grizzly hackle clipped underneath and a down-wing, fished in the film once fish start rising.

Cold Stoned - Early Blacks Demystified Materials are Supinski's published list from Hallowed Waters; the step order is a standard CDC down-wing stonefly sequence since his article gives the dressing but not the steps. Unconfirmed: Hook size is not stated in the source (12-14 is our assumption); only one published source exists for the dressing; the Newaygo/Muskegon attribution is from Supinski's general biography, not the fetched page. Also checked against Phil Monahan / Tim Flagler, Orvis News (2015), Video: How to Tie the Little Black Stonefly.

Materials to buy
Everything one Sly Sister Stone takes, each item once: 5 items. Quantities are for a single fly. We do not sell components yet; when we do, these will link to them.

Hook and hardware

  • Daiichi 1260 hooks1 per fly

    sizes 12-14 · Daiichi

    Hook

Feathers and fur

  • Rabbit dubbing1 packet

    black · Hareline

    Body

  • CDC feathers1 pack each

    light dun and dark dun

    Wing

  • Grizzly dry-fly saddle1 saddle

    Head

Thread and finish

  • Tying thread1 spool

    black, 70 denier

    Thread

Sources