Bug of the Month: Hill's Designated Hitter Golden Stonefly

In Major League Baseball’s American League, one player in each team’s line-up is paid millions to do one thing and do it well; the designated hitter is employed to put runs on the scoreboard. Similarly, in the sport of fly fishing, the Designated Hitter fly pattern is a stonefly imitation designed to catch big trout – and nothing else.

Professional fly fishing guide and accomplished fly designer and tyer, David Hill, constructed the “DH” Stonefly during the 1990s while guiding clients in the Missoula, Montana area, and this highly productive fly pattern is built to last, cast after cast.

The Designated Hitter Golden Stonefly is a fantastically attractive and durable imitation of an emergent or adult Golden Stonefly. It’s got rubber legs for the ultimate bug factor, a ragged dubbed body, closed cell foam butt, and a stiff deer hair wing for visibility and flotation. When it comes to effective stone fly imitations, this fly pattern’s got all the bases covered!

Quick Hits

- This fly was developed for Umpqua Feather Merchants by well-traveled professional fly fishing guide David Hill

- The fly is constructed with a butt of closed cell fly tying foam, realistic wings, attractive rubber legs, and stiff deer hair for high floatation

- Golden stonefly imitation in the emerger or adult life stage

- Use as either an impressionistic searching fly or as a realistic imitation when matching the hatch

- Drift the fly through different water types; faster riffles and shallower water near the banks of a river with moderate to slow currents are the most productive water types for this fly

- Golden stoneflies are available to trout all year long in trout water throughout North America

- Hatches occur consistently and with long duration throughout the daylight hours

- Strikes on golden stoneflies are often far from subtle because trout must often be prepared to rip these strong clingers from their rocky homes

- When approaching a shallow water environment with a stonefly imitation, be extremely careful not to spook happily feeding trout