The sulphur hatch is heavy in the Blue Ridge Mountains from mid May to late June. In the Smokies it is 2 weeks earlier and in the Catskills about 2-3 weeks later. My advice to visiting anglers is just be willing to stay on the stream until dark when fishing this hatch.
One evening as I was setting up our tent near a brook trout stream high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, my son came running down the trail. He had checked the stream and proceeded to tell me to get my fly rod. On a long narrow pool 100ft upstream from our tent there was a beautiful pool with eleven trout on their feeding stations. They were feeding on a mixture of duns and spinners.
Shenk’s Sulphur Dry size 16, 18
Murray’s Sulphur Dry size 16, 18
Sulphur Nymph size 16
Murray’s Sulphur Nymph size 14, 16
For more information on the hatch charts, reading the water, and stream access, see my book Trout Fishing in the Shenandoah National Park.
Fish all of these on a Murray’s Mountain 6ft 5X leader or a Classic 7.5ft 5X leader. Don’t forget to dress your dry flies with dry fly floatant before you start fishing.