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Alder
Pattern Image:
General Description:
Alderfly larvae live in ponds, lakes, and also in still pools and backwaters of streams and rivers. They are highly predaceous, make their living prowling through leaf packs that settle and compact on the bottom of waters in forested areas. As their name implies, they're most common where alders and other hardwoods line stillwaters or streams. If you pull a wad of leaves off the bottom, you can begin turning them over like pages of a book, reading about the little lives in that bit of water. You'll turn one leaf and reveal a mayfly nymph or midge larvae; then you'll turn another leaf and behold the alderfly larva that is hunting through the same leaf pack, after what you've just found. Because the larvae are so well-hidden among the leaves, and because they pupate on shore, only the adults are important to trout, and to trout fishermen. They are dark insects, almost black, and look just like caddisflies, but have glassy wings. They come in sizes 10 to 16, and are distributed all across the continent, wherever you find hardwood forests alongside trout waters. They emerge in May, June, and July. Alderfly adults remain hidden in the trees, another reason for their name, until the warmest parts of each day. Then they take wing, and often land on the water.
Stage Description:
Alderfly adults are blocky, dense insects. They're very clumsy fliers. When they fly out over water, they're often unable to keep themselves up, and helicopter in. They're so heavy that they sink at once. Though it seems the sort of 'hatch' you would fish with a dry fly, in reality almost all alderfly adults are taken by trout beneath the surface. Imitate them with a wet fly, naturally the ancient Alder, first tied in England but very effective in this country as well. Alderflies lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves that overhang the water. When the larvae hatch, they fall in. They're not important to trout, but the clumsy adults, spending so much time so close to water, are a mid-summer staple of trout in forested lakes, ponds, and the slowest pools and backwaters of streams.
Hook:
Standard wet fly, size 10-16.
Thread:
Black 6/0 or 8/0.
Body:
Peacock herl.
Hackle:
Furnace hen.
Category:
Trout Flies: Imitators
Insect Family:
Alderflies, hellgrammites, dobsonflies, and fishflies (order Corydalidae)
Insect:
Alderflies (Sialidae)
Stage:
Adult
Pattern Name:
Alder
Rib:
Oval silver tinsel.
Wing:
Dark turkey feather sections.
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