Black Hills Hatch Chart

 

Adult (Genera)	Adult Hatch Times	Dry  fly patterns/color and size of adult	Nymph patterns/color and size of nymph
Midge (chironomidae)	Year round (best during spring and warm winter days)	Morgan’s Midge, Parachute Midge, Matt’s Midge Size 18-24. Black and Olive	Mercury Midges, Bubble Back Midges, and Zebra Midges in black, red, cream, and olive in sizes 16-24
Spring BWO (Baetis)	February-May	Comparaduns, Sparkle Duns, Baetis Thorax Duns Sizes 16-18. Olive to Grey Olive	Pheasant Tail Nymphs in soft hackle, bead head, or flashbacks in sizes 14-18. Or more specifically use WD-40’s, Tungsten Split Back BWO nymphs, Killer Mayfly Nymphs, and Skinny Nelson’s. Nymphs are typically pale olive to dark olive. Nymphs will appear almost black when close to hatching.
Little Black Stonefly	January thru April	CDC Black Stonefly, or F-Fly. Sizes 16-18 Black, Mottled Grey	Black Copper Johns in sizes 14-18
Black Caddis	Late March thru June	Black Elk Hair Caddis or CDC Black Caddis. Size 16-18 Black	Tan or Green Larvae. Try Barr’s Uncased Caddis or Solitude’s Crawling Caddis Larva sizes 14-16
Pale Morning Duns	Late July to September	Yellow to Tannish Yellow. Size 14-18. Try Barr’s Vis-a-dun PMD, CDC PMD Thorax Dun’s, PMD Comparaduns, or PMD Sparkle Duns	Pheasant Tail Nymphs in soft hackle, bead head, or flashbacks in sizes 14-16. Our most productive nymph has been the Tungsten Split Case PMD Nymph.
Damsel and Dragon Flies	April thru August	Blue Damsel Adult Size 14	Whitlocks Damsel nymph pattern in olive or brown and Wooly Buggers in sizes 8-12
Yellow Stonefly (Isoperla)	Early May thru July	Small Yellow Stimulators, Para Sally, Lorie’s Little Yellow Stonefly. Size 14-18	Mercer’s Tungsten Micro Stone, Wade’s Tan North Fork Special, or Barr’s Tung Stone sizes 14-18
Trico (Tricorythodes)	Mid. July thru September	Organza Wing Spinner, Upright Spinner, CDC Throrax Dun. Size 18-22. Males are black, Females are Olive.	Pheasant Tails or Hares Ears light to dark brown in sizes 18-22
Fall BWO (Baetis/Acentrella)	July thru early August	Colors essentially the same as the Spring Baetis, sizes 18-22. Use same patterns as spring baetis only in smaller sizes.	Same as Spring BWO in sizes 18-22
Tan and Olive Caddis	May thru Mid. September (Usually evenings)	Elk hair, CDC, light tan to dark olive or brown in sizes 14-18	Pale to dark olive larva and grey to olive pupa. Try Barr’s Uncased Caddis or Solitude’s Crawling Caddis Larva sizes 14-16 sizes 14-18
Speckle Winged Mayfly (Callibaetis)	May thru June then mid August thru September	Upright Callibaetis Spinner of Parachute Adams.  Grey body with speckled wings found in lakes or slower moving water in the streams in sizes 14-18	Flashback Pheasant Tails and Mighty May Callibaetis Nymph in sizes 14-18

Scuds and shrimp	Year round	Scuds have an olive or tan body with an orange egg sac, the shrimp are transparent to white or light tan in color in sizes 12-18. Our most productive scud pattern is the Hunchback Scud.
Terrestrials	March to late October Ants and beetles most of the year.  Hoppers are usually fishes June thru October	Parachute Hopper, Rainy’s Grand hopper, Daves Hopper, Joes Hopper, and Solitude Foam Hoppers in yellow, green and tan. Ant patterns in sizes 12-22, beetles in sizes 12-18 and hoppers are found in size 16 in June and grow to size 6 by October

Send mail to flyfish@rapidnet.com with questions or comments. Dakota Angler & Outfitter 1010 Jackson Blvd, Rapid City, SD 57702 Phone – 605-341-2450