Beautiful fly. I like the exaggerated abdominal rings, which will, I believe serve as a trigger.

Thanks (algyros)

No hackle dry flies are fine for spring creeks but they don't float well enough in some conditions. This is supposed to be a sits-down-in-the-surface tension imitation--like a no hackle dry fly--that still floats well. So it has a Right Hackle underneath. Which is just a flat, splayed out, bottom mounted crossbar of Zelon, carpet scraps or snow shoe rabbit's foot fibers tacked on LOOSELY with one front to back figure eight wrap underneath the body. Then as a last step a dab of glue fastens the loosely basted hackles permanently. Almost any glue will do. Lacquer based head cement, clear nail polish, UV glue, CA glue or even water based fabric cement. It's a glue fly.

This is a complex fly. I tie them for the fun of it. I don't claim they work any better than other patterns. Well they do float better than some.

Parashooter

I'm going to have to make video at some point. These look difficult to make but they aren't. Wax up a horizontal #12 beading needle and spin it at high speed in a rotary vise. Touch a wisp of dubbing to the needle and voila--instant body. Wet it with fabric cement while spinning some more. Tie on tails. Add a wing. Whip finish. Slide it off the needle. Mount it on a small light wire scud hook. Add a Right Hackle, underneath the thorax. Put a touch of glue (any glue) to the bottom of the thorax to fix the bottom-mounted Right Hackle and that's the fly.

They cast well dry off quickly always land upright and float well too. And they're fun to make.



I have far more trouble with classic Catskill dry flies. I think people revere Catskill dry flies as they do because they are beautiful flies, for human eyes to look at. And because they are so damned hard to make. Hard to make nicely anyway.

And that's the rub for me. I can make standard Catskill dry flies quickly enough but they're always ugly--if I make them quickly. Despite the inherently upright posture of the archetypal Catskill design, Catskill flies land on their side as often or more often than upright. Their long tails hold them high up off the water in a less than natural posture. A blurry, soft-focus silhouette of the Catskill design doesn't look much like a mayfly dun to me.

Low-to-the water, sits-in-the-surface tension designs like No Hackle dry flies, Paraduns and Comparaduns are fine in the Spring Creek context but they don't float well enough for many situations. Parachute mayflies do float well and they do sit down low on the water, much like the real thing. But top-mounted parachutes require a cylindrical, relatively stiff and highly un-natural post fiber wing.

The real trick is to make a low-to-water mayfly with a natural silhouette, that lands upright dries off quickly floats well and casts well, not harder to tie than, say a Quill Gordon. If you could do that you'd have something.

Thanks, Sandy. And, if you have the time, a video would be nice Christmas present.

Ok I think I'm done with mayfly duns. I need to move on to wet flies now. Then bigger nymphs and then streamers and what ever else. I do want to fish some mouse patterns this year. Even in broad daylight. That will be interesting.

If there is a point to the Parashooter idea it's mostly that I like tying them. But they do float well dry off quickly and land upright. And catch fish. They do sit flat to the surface tension, like a real mayfly and unlike the high-riding Catskill design.

And it's an extended body technique that lends itself well to smaller flies. Most extended bodies we've seen in the past are tricky to make, over dressed and suited well only to larger drake imitations. I can make Parashooters as #16 PMDs. I wouldn't go as far as saying they're easy--but they are easier than winding rooster hackles on small flies. Ducktails, on the other hand, are easy to make. Parashooters do take a bit of fussing. But they are good flies.




Without a landmark reference it's hard to tell just from the photograph. But that is a #20 hook. The smaller the harder and the bigger the easier. The Parashooter would make a dandy Green Drake.