The sulphur mayflies are coming well now and the trout are feeding on both the nymphs and the adult. A very special friend the late John Snyder, one of the finest brown trout fly fishermen on the east coast, was so successful with the nymphs on this hatch that he would often continue fishing them a hour into the hatch, long after the rest of us had switched to the duns.
If you want to play John’s game use a Murray’s Professor Nymph 14 and fish it upstream dead drift in the deep runs and below the riffles and even dress it with a cream floatant and fish to rising brown trout. This latter ploy is very effective on heavily fished streams.
I actually enjoy flyfishing drys best on the Sulphur hatch and use both Ed Shenk’s Sulphur 16 & 18 and the Murray’s Sulphur Dry 16 & 18 and fish all of these on 6X.
I always watch for feeding trout and go one on one with these fish. However, if I don’t see risers I use the dry flies to cover the water. Remember, the streams are getting lower and the brown trout are wary so use a cautious approach.
My final tip on the sulphur hatch is to stay on the stream until dark in order to cash in on both the duns and spinners.

A wonderful fringe benefit of trout fishing for brookies in the Shenandoah National Park is the beauty of the wildflowers along the streams.

Last night I caught my largest bass of the year just as it was getting dark. If you are considering fishing for smallmouth bass at night here are some tactics which help me. I choose a section of the river where the footing is farily uniform such as a gravel or cobblestone bottom rather than zig zag ledges. I want a fairly open tree line so I don’t get caught on my back casts. I choose flies which are very durable so I don’t have to replace them in the dark after a dozen bass eat them. I carry a small waterproof flashlight in case I need to replace a fly or rework my leader. I use a Folstaff wading staff to probe the stream bottom ahead of me so I don’t get in too deep. Finally, I select a get out spot, which I had checked out in the daylight, so I don’t have to climb out of the river in the dark through poison ivy, itch weed or an old barbed wire fence.

I’m starting to see many natural little yellow stonefly adults on our streams and trout take these insects well and thus will take our dry flies and nymphs readily.
The two most productive areas to fish a dry stonefly are the tails of the pools where the flies which emerged in that pool are drifting and below the riffles in the heads of the pools where the naturals from the pool above wash in.
The two best areas to fish a little yellow stonefly nymph are beside the mossy boulders in the sides of the pools and below the log jams in the pools which hold dead leaves. These are the two areas which hold large populations of natural nymphs and the trout feed heavily upon them in these areas.
My favorite dry for this hatch is the Murray’s Little Yellow Stonefly Dry 16 & 18. My favorite nymph to match these naturals is the Murray’s Miracle Yellow Stonefly Nymph 16.