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Yellow Sally
A dry fly, tied #14–16, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — June–August.
A small bright dry fly for summer, tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 14 and 16 with yellow 8/0 thread. The tail is yellow hackle fibres, or simply a short red butt of thread; the body is bright yellow dubbing; the wing is light elk or deer hair laid flat over the back; and the hackle is ginger or cream, clipped underneath so the fly rides low. Size 14 in bright yellow is the version carried, and the water for it is a riffle on a summer evening along the bank. It is fished with movement rather than a dead drift, skittered across the surface, because the naturals do not sit still while they are laying eggs. The insect it is tied against is the little yellow sally, Isoperla spp., a stonefly on the water from June through August at water temperatures between 55 and 68 degrees. Trout are the fish it is meant for.
- #14–16Hook size
- dry flyType
- SummerSeason
- 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 | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 14–16 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Yellow 8/0 |
| Tail | Yellow hackle fibres or a short red butt of thread |
| Body | Bright yellow dubbing |
| Wing | Light elk or deer hair, flat over the back |
| Hackle | Ginger or cream, clipped underneath |
When to fish it
Summer evenings in riffles. Skitter it — the naturals do not sit still while they lay eggs.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active june–august, in water from 55°F to 68°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.
- Stimulator dry fly · #8–16 — Attractor and stonefly both. Floats a dropper better than almost anything.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.
- Adult Cranefly dry fly · #10–16 — Long trailing legs, sparse hackle, skittered rather than drifted. Autumn and spring evenings on the bank side.
- Adult Damsel dry fly · #10–14 — Blue or olive extended body on a foam post. For midsummer afternoons on slow weedy water.
- Blue Quill dry fly · #16–18 — Small dark mayfly dun. Spring Blue Quills and fall Mahoganies are the same fly.