Sulphur mayflies are abundant across the US, and can be found in some parts of Europe as well. While they take slightly different sizes and shades from area to area and brood to brood, they follow a similar hatch process and can be fished with similar fly patterns. For those of you familiar with PMDs, these are a very similar mayfly. In this blog on the stages of the sulphur hatch we will cover the basic principals and patterns. However, in order to be most effective you need to understand their cycle, their color, and their size on your rivers. Take this as a starting place, and you’re off to the races.
Sulphur Mayfly Nymph
Sulphurs, as with other mayflies, spend most of their lifecycle as nymphs underwater. Depending on the time of year and river, their shade and size will vary. The best place to find them is in oxygenated, riffle water where trout will be feeding on them as they get pulled from the rocks. While they can be imitated by most of your standard mayfly nymphs like pheasant tails and hare’s ears, if you want to get more dialed in we have some nymph patterns from two of our Signature Tiers, George Daniel and Josh Miller.
Both of these flies follow a similar principal: they’re thin, brown in coloration and have a yellow highlight at the collar. This is to imitate the color of the insect as it breaks out of its shuck and begins to hatch. This yellow hot spot can be absolutely critical when the sulphur hatch is about to begin.
Sulphur Mayfly Emerger
Once the sulphur nymphs have matured and the water temperatures make it at least into the mid 50s, they begin to emerge. This can be one of the most fun stages of any hatch to fish, and trout become very eager to take the bugs in this vulnerable stage. Translation: you will find a lot of feeding fish. You may well see sulphur duns at this stage, but if you watch the rise forms closely you should be able to detect whether or not the trout are feeding on the duns, or just below the surface on emergers. You can see this in the early morning all through the rest of the day. It all depends on the stream, weather and conditions overall.
We have several great sulphur emerger patterns like the Bread Line Emerger and Tom Rosenbauer’s Rabbit Foot Emerger. With that said, another great option is Burkus’ Riffle Robber in primrose or pink lady. While this was designed for the PMD hatch out west, it absolutely will get eaten during a sulphur hatch.
Sulphur Mayfly Dun
Once the sulphurs have emerged, they will sit on the surface drying their wings until they are able to take off. If it’s humid and wet out, this can take much longer than on a dry day. What that means is the dun will be on the water and at risk of getting eaten by trout for much longer. You can see this in the early morning all through the rest of the day. It all depends on the stream, weather and conditions overall.
The key to a sulphur dun pattern is its color and profile. The yellow can be bright, or more muted, but they are all some variation of yellow. That, and they have the typical upright wing look of a mayfly which trout will be looking for. We have many sulphur dun options, but Weiss’ CdC Yellow Sulphur, a Sulphur Parachute, and Lexi’s Get ‘er Dun May Sulphur are all favorites of ours.
Sulphur Mayfly Spinner
After the duns have flown off, gone through their lifecycle and mated, they return to the river and die as spinners. In this stage they take on more of a rusty coloration, as do many other mayfly spinners. This usually occurs at the end of the day and can be a fantastic time to find lots of feeding fish who become reckless due to the abundance of easy meals.
Lexi’s Get ‘er Dun Spinner Sulphur is perfect for this, and includes a yellow hotspot. If you’re not totally sure they’re on sulphurs, or don’t have that pattern, Tom Rosenbauer’s Sneaky Spinner would also get it done during a sulphur spinner fall. Make accurate casts, clean drifts, and believe in your pattern! The real key to these spinners is that they wings are laying flat, and they have a rusty coloration.
Several of Tom Rosenbauer’s patterns are featured in this article. If you want to learn more about him, check out his Q&A on our blog.
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