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The lying characteristics of a dry fly on the water represent one of the more important factors for instituting an effective fishing strategy, improving the imitative aspect of the artificial. A fly realised with hackles of pour quality, which tend to absorb water and therefore to sink in short time, is penalising under the profile of the catch, especially if it is cast on a fast and rippled river, because, sinking, it does not help us to notice the fish to take – the trout usually do not make a surface rise grabbing a drown artificial – and to make so a timely strike. In the same way, a fly prepared with a dense collar, in order to render it almost unsinkable, loses many of its verisimilitude qualities, provoking more refusals than takes. But not only this.
If we consider the classic dry flies realised with turns of cock hackles around the third or the fourth front of the hook shank, we can realise that, observed from the fish position, they often appear very dissimilar from any aquatic insect, if not other because theirs collars, with their large number of fibres, can be difficulty confused for the legs of an ephemera or a trichopter. The fact that a trout or a grayling can take them must be interpreted therefore like a event due to the inexperience, or to the instinctive and sometimes unrestrainable attitude to the marauding, of the salmonids. To confirm my assertion, we can try to catch a trout that, for a long time, has been tempted by the anglers and to verify that, in effects, the traditional artificials get modest results: this depends mostly on the unmistakable silhouette that distinguishes them, but also on their way to stay over the water. In order to obviate to such disadvantage, especially when we have to face an adversary skilful and selective, we can resort, of course, to imitative flies, constructed even with small amounts of materials that exalt their similitude, but also to use all those imitations that float in a particular way and that appear, for this reason, different from the most common dry flies.
All this means that our choice can prefer, for example, an imitation tied with the Reverse technique, but also one assembled with the parachute method. This second category of flies, in particular, offers the advantage to help us to face the faster and tumultuous waters, because the particular disposition of their collar increases remarkably the buoyancy. Their building process, moreover, does not pretend particular ability to be ended, so the parachute imitations can be considered from us flies easy to tie and useful in many situations. The only defect of these artificial, if we can define it so, is the fragility of their floatation structure – in other words, of the hackle collar – when it is realised on a weak base, like the inferior portion of the hackle stem. The cock feathers, in fact, subordinates to the solicitations of the fishing action, but also of the trout teeth that bites them, can become unstrung from the base of the stem, transforming the fly in a shapeless and unsuitable heap.
The solution to the problem consists in composing the implantation base for the hackles with a quite robust material, which is not so heavy to compromise the buoyancy of the imitation, like a thin wire of steel. The use of the steel wire for tying the parachute artificials is a quite common trick to many fly tiers and I think similar solution one of the best way to build long-lasting and sturdy patterns of fly. A steel stem, applied to an hook of appropriated shape, can help us to vary also the inclination of the collar, so that we can place it in a way to force all the body to float over the water, or to sink slightly under the surface, like my Blue Quill Parachute.
If we consider the classic dry flies realised with turns of cock hackles around the third or the fourth front of the hook shank, we can realise that, observed from the fish position, they often appear very dissimilar from any aquatic insect, if not other because theirs collars, with their large number of fibres, can be difficulty confused for the legs of an ephemera or a trichopter. The fact that a trout or a grayling can take them must be interpreted therefore like a event due to the inexperience, or to the instinctive and sometimes unrestrainable attitude to the marauding, of the salmonids. To confirm my assertion, we can try to catch a trout that, for a long time, has been tempted by the anglers and to verify that, in effects, the traditional artificials get modest results: this depends mostly on the unmistakable silhouette that distinguishes them, but also on their way to stay over the water. In order to obviate to such disadvantage, especially when we have to face an adversary skilful and selective, we can resort, of course, to imitative flies, constructed even with small amounts of materials that exalt their similitude, but also to use all those imitations that float in a particular way and that appear, for this reason, different from the most common dry flies.
All this means that our choice can prefer, for example, an imitation tied with the Reverse technique, but also one assembled with the parachute method. This second category of flies, in particular, offers the advantage to help us to face the faster and tumultuous waters, because the particular disposition of their collar increases remarkably the buoyancy. Their building process, moreover, does not pretend particular ability to be ended, so the parachute imitations can be considered from us flies easy to tie and useful in many situations. The only defect of these artificial, if we can define it so, is the fragility of their floatation structure – in other words, of the hackle collar – when it is realised on a weak base, like the inferior portion of the hackle stem. The cock feathers, in fact, subordinates to the solicitations of the fishing action, but also of the trout teeth that bites them, can become unstrung from the base of the stem, transforming the fly in a shapeless and unsuitable heap.
The solution to the problem consists in composing the implantation base for the hackles with a quite robust material, which is not so heavy to compromise the buoyancy of the imitation, like a thin wire of steel. The use of the steel wire for tying the parachute artificials is a quite common trick to many fly tiers and I think similar solution one of the best way to build long-lasting and sturdy patterns of fly. A steel stem, applied to an hook of appropriated shape, can help us to vary also the inclination of the collar, so that we can place it in a way to force all the body to float over the water, or to sink slightly under the surface, like my Blue Quill Parachute.
INSTRUCTIONS
We start the to tie the fly by extracting a wire from a steel wire for pike fishing and creating with it one small buttonhole, which then we tight with the help of a needle. At the end of this operation, we have to obtain a sort of fine interlaced stem, the length of which is nearly two centimetres and with a smallest ring on the top
We insert the hook onto the vice jaw and we tie over it the brown thread, in order to secure the steel stem on the hook shank, placing it at short distance from the eye, so that its ring is elevated upwards for a millimetre
We wind now the thread to the hook bend and we tie on it four or five fibres taken from a Coq de Leon hackle. These tails must extend from the hook for nearly half centimetre
On the fixing point of the tails, we bind in a peacock herl cleaned of all the down that covers it. Next, with the brown thread, we form a thin and uniform underbody, with conical shape, along the two rear thirds of the hook shank
Wrapping the peacock quill in turns perfectly approached one to the others, we create the fly abdomen over the underbody
From the tail of a calf dyed of white, we cut a small tuft of hair; we level it with the hair stacker and then we tie it on the hook, placing it around the ring of the steel stem, with its tips elevated upwards for a length nearly equivalent to the hook shank. At the end of this implantation, we have to cut off the exceeding of the calf hairs
We wax a short stretch of the thread and we distribute on it a pinch of opossum hair, or of the hare mask, forming a compact rope that we wrap around the front third of the hook, in order to realise the fly thorax
From a light blue dun cock neck, we select an hackle with the fibres a little longer than the half of hook shank and we tie it, for its base, on the hook part which is just below the wings
With the hackle pliers we turn repeatedly the hackle around the steel stem which is inside the wings, paying attention that the passages are made under the ring
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Secured the hackle and cut off its exceeding part, we
form the head of our imitation with some turns of thread behind the eye,
which then we finish with a whip finish and a small drop of glue
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MATERIALS LIST
HOOK: Grub size 16 to 12
THREAD: brown
TAILS: coq de Leon
ABDOMEN. peacock quill
THORAX: opossum, or hare’s mask, hairs
WINGS: white calf tail hair
HACKLE: light blue dun
THREAD: brown
TAILS: coq de Leon
ABDOMEN. peacock quill
THORAX: opossum, or hare’s mask, hairs
WINGS: white calf tail hair
HACKLE: light blue dun
