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Nat Greene Flyfishers    May 2008

New Fly Needs Testing

I feel sorry for those of you who did not attend Gary Borger’s recent seminar. Seminars usually concentrate on fly tying with a bit of casting thrown in. Gary focused on how to present the fly instead. He talked about everything from not trimming knots in your leader to how make the basic casting stroke. I appreciated his application of science and teaching technique; Gary, was after all, a biology professor at a branch of the University of Wisconsin. Towards the end of his lecture, he did broach the subject of what flies are most popular and why. He felt the artificial flies trout ate most readily are emerger patterns because they represent a stage of an insect’s life in which the animal is helpless, can’t get away and is thus an easy target.

Gary said the best selling dry fly in the world is a parachute Adams with a pheasant tail body. This makes sense because the combination represents a nymph at the water’s surface trying to become an adult. I wish I had thought of it. I do, in fact, use some non-traditional parachute Adams such as a Hare’s ear dubbing for the body. This works well as a searching fly when no fish are rising, and quite possibly for the same reasons the pheasant tail version is so popular.

Gary’s depiction of the parachute Adams as an emerger pattern floated around in my brain for a few days until I finally decided I had better tie some before I forgot. I sat down at my bench but Gary ’s fly didn’t come out. Instead, I took the idea of an emerger pattern a bit farther. I like the idea of a parachute dry because they always land upright, are easy to tie and only one hackle is needed to float the fly. Over the past ten years I have begun to use colors other than white for the wing and have developed a fondness for black because I can see it under almost any light condition and the fish don’t seem to mind. And I pay a lot of attention to new flies coming out of Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, MT. They are always experimenting with new flies there and have some pretty radical ideas. One of those is using a synthetic called Zelon for wings and shucks. They also have identified certain colors as being shared among numbers of insects. As a result, one shade of dubbing might cover a lot of ground, or water in our case.

So now I am thinking about a parachute fly with a black wing, a Zelon shuck and body to match lots of insects in their final nymphal stage. After an additional few seconds of contemplation, I proceed to tie in a black wing, or post, of polypropylene yarn, a grizzly hackle, olive-brown Zelon shuck and an olive-brown fur body. Then I wrapped four turns of hackle around the post and tied the feather off. This initial attempt was on a size fourteen hook and it looked so fishy I immediately set out to fill a range of sizes down to eighteen.

I baptized the fly at Stone Mountain on Friday the 11th. I ate lunch on the bank of a favorite pool and saw a few sporadic rises although I couldn’t see any adults emerging. This could mean anything but at least it meant a few fish might be looking up. Maybe a dry fly might work. I geared up and proceeded to stare into my fly boxes for some inspiration. I found it in the new emerger pattern.

I picked a small one, a number eighteen. I lengthed the tippet and added the fly. The fly dropped to the water and drifted briefly before disappearing in an eager rise. I tightened to a nice brookie, about eleven inches. I patted the fly dry and cast again. A second cast and I was tight to another fish. Hmmm, two fish in three casts. Something might be happening here.

Well, by the end of the afternoon I took eleven trout, including one fine brookie about thirteen inches long. A small native rainbow even ate the emerger. It seemed only the small fly worked because a change to a sixteen didn’t produce. It was a fine afternoon and I was pleased with the performance of the new fly.

But the fly is still virtually brand new. It needs to be tested. That is where you, fine reader, come in. Tie up some of these emergers and give them a try. Let me know how they work for you. Only after many fishermen fish the pattern can we tell if we actually have anything here. You know my opinion. Give it a try yourself.

Here’s the pattern again:

Hook: Dry fly, sizes 14 to 22

Wing: Black polypropylene yarn, could substitute other materials

Hackle: Grizzly, tied in front of the wing with concave (dull) side down

Shuck (tail): Olive-brown Zelon. You might also try three pheasant tail fibers tied short. Remember, this fly represents a nymph trying to become an adult.

Body: Olive-brown fur. I mix olive and brown rabbit fur. Any kind should work.

I tie in the wing a bit long, wrapping the thread about six times around the base to firm it up. Then tie in the hackle on the eye side of the wing. Prop the hackle up against the wing and bring the thread back to the end of the shank. Tie in the shuck. Then dub from tail to the hook eye. Wrap four turns of hackle around the base, starting high and winding your way down. Bring the hackle tip over the hook eye and tie off. This may leave some stubs over the eye; you can burn them out with a hot needle. Trim the wing to length and flatten the barb.

Go get ‘em!

Jim Brady

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