Golden Stonefly (Acroneuria spp.)

Stonefly, hatching June–July, active in water between 55 and 68°F, and imitated at #6–10. Recorded from the Virginia mountains, where 796 Virginia rivers on this site carry a page.

A large amber-and-brown stonefly, size 6 to 10, with two tails and a nymph flattened for holding in fast water. The nymph lives in riffles and broken water for two or three years, amber and mottled brown, which means a weighted imitation on the bottom is worth fishing on any day of any month rather than only during the emergence. The peak for the insect itself is June and July, in water from 55 to 68 degrees, a band covering cold, cold-transitional and cool streams. Adults crawl out onto rocks and banks to emerge in early summer, and they do it at night; the part that shows above water is the egg-laying females in the evening, which bring fish up. A Golden Stone Nymph in 6 to 12 or Pat's Rubber Legs in 4 to 10 covers the nymph, and a Stimulator or Chubby Chernobyl covers the adult on the surface.

#6–10Hook size
55–68°FWater, active
Jun–JulPeak months
2Life stages fished

Subbasins with trout water where it is on record: 29 of Virginia's 53.

See Virginia's trout water on the live map → Every reach coloured by water temperature — the water these hatches come off.

What it is

Stonefly · Acroneuria spp. · nymph → adult

A large amber-and-brown stonefly, size 6 to 10, with two tails and a flattened nymph built for holding in fast water.

The nymph lives three years in the rocks, so it is worth fishing any day of any month. The adult crawls out at night.

When it hatches

Peak is June–July. The pale months either side are the shoulder — the app widens a peak by one month in each direction and recommends the bug there, and no further: that widening is bounded so that a bug peaking in May is never offered in August.

JFMAMJJASOND

peak shoulder not recommended

Water conditions

The band is a water temperature, not an air temperature, and it is the range in which this insect is worth fishing — for a mayfly that is the emergence window; for a scud or a midge it is simply the range trout will still eat one in.

55°F 68°F

Active from 55°F to 68°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool water — the band crosses 2 of the three breaks the river colours use. Breaks at 58, 64 and 70°F.

Stages

What the insect is doing, and what that means for what you tie on.

Stage	What it is
nymph	Lives in riffles and broken water for two or three years. Amber and mottled brown, weighted, on the bottom.
adult	Crawls out onto rocks and banks to emerge in early summer. Egg-laying females bring fish up in the evening.

Matching flies

4 patterns in this book imitate the Golden Stonefly, across its stages. Which one to tie on follows the stage the water temperature says it is in — the app makes that call on a live reading; this page lists the whole set.

Where to find it right now

The rivers with a page here that sit in this insect's regions, with a USGS gauge reporting water temperature. This list is re-ranked against the reading each gauge is sending now and today's date, so it is live — the fallback below it, if the readings do not arrive, is each river's measured July mean.

Regional presence

Regions, not collection records. This insect is recorded from the coarse regions below; nobody has surveyed which named river it has been caught on, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

northern lower Michigan MI
the Upper Peninsula MI
northern Wisconsin WI
the Virginia mountains VA
the North Carolina mountains NC
southeast Minnesota MN

Rivers in these regions with a page here

Related hatches

Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.

Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.