Pat's Rubber Legs

A nymph, tied #4–10, carried year round. It is tied against 4 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year.

A big stonefly nymph rendered in the crudest possible terms: brown or black variegated chenille wrapped over lead wire on a 3X long nymph hook in sizes 4–10, brown 6/0 thread, and round rubber legs set at the tail, thorax and head for six points of movement. It is ugly and heavy, and it works. The insects behind it are the giant black stonefly, Pteronarcys dorsata, in May and June between 50 and 62 degrees; the golden stonefly, Acroneuria spp., in June and July between 55 and 68; and the cranefly larva, Tipula spp., April through June and again September through October, 40 to 65 degrees. It also stands in for stoneflies generally and searches water where no hatch is on. Carried all season, and at its most useful in high or coloured water in spring. For trout.

#4–10Hook size
nymphType
AllSeason
4Hatches 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.

Six rubber legs and a chenille body, and it out-fishes patterns ten times more complicated. The legs never stop moving, which is the entire mechanism. Drawn at #8 — 23.3 mm of shank and 7.0 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.

The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 4 will differ a little.

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.

It is also tagged for stoneflies generally, no hatch at all — a searching pattern.

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 4–10
Thread	Brown 6/0
Body	Brown or black variegated chenille
Legs	Round rubber legs at the tail, thorax and head — six points
Weight	Lead wire

When to fish it

A big stonefly nymph in the crudest possible terms, and it works. High water, spring, and any river with Pteronarcys in it.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 40°F to 78°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.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

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