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Cranefly Larva
A nymph, tied #6–10, carried year round. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — April–June and September–October.
A fat pale grub on a 3X long nymph hook in sizes 6–10, tied with olive 6/0 thread. The body is olive-grey dubbing or a section of mop fibre, deliberately fat and soft, ribbed with clear mono and finished with a dark olive dubbed head; lead wire or a tungsten bead supplies the weight. The softness is the point — the natural is a limp, heavy-bodied larva with no legs and no shape of its own. It is fished in high, coloured water in spring and autumn, bounced along the bottom near banks where the naturals get washed out, and it comes into its own in the day or two after high water. The insect it is tied against is the Cranefly Larva, Tipula spp., April–June and September–October, at water temperatures of 40–65°F. Trout are the fish, and the fly is carried all season.
- #6–10Hook size
- nymphType
- AllSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | 3X long nymph hook, sizes 6–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Olive 6/0 |
| Body | Olive-grey dubbing or a mop-fibre section, fat and soft |
| Rib | Clear mono |
| Head | Dark olive dubbing |
| Weight | Lead wire or a tungsten bead |
When to fish it
High, coloured water in spring and autumn, bounced along the bottom near banks where the naturals get washed out.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active april–june and september–october, in water from 40°F to 65°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Mop Fly nymph · #10–14 — Divisive and effective. Suggests a cranefly larva more than anybody wants to admit.
- Pat's Rubber Legs nymph · #4–10 — Ugly, heavy, and the single best searching nymph in high or coloured water.
- Damsel Nymph nymph · #10–14 — Slim olive body, marabou tail, small bead eyes. Retrieved in short pulls — the natural swims in a side-to-side wriggle.
- Dragonfly Nymph nymph · #4–10 — Broad, heavy, olive-brown, fished on the bottom with long slow strips. Weight is the whole pattern.
- Egg Fly nymph · #10–16 — Behind spawning salmon and steelhead in fall and spring. Not a hatch — a food source.