SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER BRING ON SOME OF OUR FAVORITE HATCHES, and none is more popular than the sulphur hatch. These dainty, pale yellow mayflies are common from the Catskills to East Tennessee and beyond. Depending upon where you fish, sulphurs emerge from mid May until mid June. As you fill your fly box, anticipating hatching mayflies and rising trout, be sure to add a row of Sulphurs.
Sulphur Soft Hackle
HOOK: Dohiku 302, sizes 14 to 18.
THREAD: Yellow 6/0 (140 denier).
TAIL: Light dun hen hackle fibers.
ABDOMEN: Yellow Natureblend.
RIB: Fine gold wire.
THORAX: Cinnamon Natureblend.
HACKLE: Light dun hen hackle.
Pennsylvania guide Eric Stroup is an expert at matching the sulfur hatch. These two patterns of his are perfect for imitating this important insect. Fish the Sulphur Soft Hackle early in the hatch as the insects are rising to the surface of the water, and use the Sulphur Klinkhammer when you see the noses of the trout popping out of the water to sip the adults.
Sulphur Klinkhammer
HOOK: Partridge Klinkhammer 15BN, sizes 16 to 20.
THREAD: Pale yellow 6/0 (140 denier).
ABDOMEN: Yellow Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk.
THORAX: Light olive Fine & Dry.
WING POST: Gray polypropylene.
HACKLE: Light ginger rooster hackle
David Klausmeyer is the editor of our sister magazine, Fly Tyer. These two flies are from David’s book, The Master’s Fly Box.
Sulphur Soft Hackle from Stroup Fly Fishing on Vimeo.
