What color is your parachute?
James Foster
that they body of they fly sits in the suface film for this style,
whereas it sits above the film for a standard hackle fly. It would seem
that this makes the color much more visible to the fish.
Has anyone experienced greater selectivity to color with parachute
flies?
Just curiou.
--
James A. Foster email: fos...@cs.uidaho.edu
Laboratory for Applied Logic Dept. of Computer Science
University of Idaho www: http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~foster
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JASON P. BEARY
>
> I was thinking about parachute-style flies last night.
Dear informed and practiced flyfishers;
I am an intermediate level fly*fisherman* with an almost novice level
of knowlege about flies. This is because or maybe why I like to flyfish
early and late in the seasons using nymphs and streamers. There is not
a tremendous selection of either, and if you have 3-4 types of numphs in
2 size ranges, you've got it covered. Streamers are even easier:
woolybuggers, 2 colors, muddlers and marabou mudders, 2 colors. I'm set
for the year. I have much less information about dry flies. So, tell
me this, are parachutes supposed to work better overall than standard
dries? I will be fishing some spring-type creeks now that I am in South
East PA. I have the impression that, because of the water speed and
bottom conditions, parachutes work better. Is this so? Aren't there
parachute versions of almost every fly made? When would you use a
standard dry when you would not use a parachute? I gladly accept your
sincere help.
Wantingly
Jason Beary
Al Beatty
>> I was thinking about parachute-style flies last night.
>
>. I have the impression that, because of the water speed and
>bottom conditions, parachutes work better. Is this so? Aren't there
>parachute versions of almost every fly made? When would you use a
>standard dry when you would not use a parachute? I gladly accept your
>sincere help.
>
You are right about the water speed. Usually parachute flies seem to
present a more natural profile of a natural insect and are therefore more
popular on slower spring creeks, etc. On the other hand they do not seem
to float as well in rough water where a traditionally hackled fly seem to
work better.
Good Luck
Al Beatty
BT's Fly Fishing Products
Bozeman, MT (new 96 catalog)
SeanWClark
to use, but one can never say "always" about anything in fly fishing!
Spring creeks are where I usually find myself turning to parachutes
because I believe that the silhuette is a better immatation of the natural
mayfly, especially in slow water. I am also a big fan of parachutes on
still water, again, especially when there is minimal disturbance on the
water. For anybody who is familliar with calibaetis hatches, I've found
an appropriatly sized Adams parachute with a dun post works amazingly well
both during and after the hatch!
Light Lines!
Sean
Alan Barnard
>Has anyone experienced greater selectivity to color with parachute
>flies?
Hi James,
Interesting question. In my experience, in situations where a
low-slung imitation was truly required due to selectivity, color was
also very important. On the other hand, in the same situations any
fully hackled fly, regardless of color, was somewhat ineffective. I
guess what I'm saying is that fish are either feeding selectively or
they're not, regardless of which fly the angler has on his leader. If
they truly are, then *everything* must be very close to right for them
to eat.
I realize my answer was a bit of a non-answer...sorry. :-)
____________________
Alan Barnard
Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, California
mailto: bar...@ns.net
__________________________
WWW Fly Tyer
http://www.ns.net/~barnard
DGracia
writes:
>
>James Foster wrote:
>>
>> I was thinking about parachute-style flies last night.
>
>Dear informed and practiced flyfishers;
> I am an intermediate level fly*fisherman* with an almost novice
level
>of knowlege about flies. <<snip>> I have much less information about
dry flies. So, tell
>me this, are parachutes supposed to work better overall than standard
>dries? I will be fishing some spring-type creeks now that I am in South
>East PA. I have the impression that, because of the water speed and
>bottom conditions, parachutes work better. Is this so? Aren't there
>parachute versions of almost every fly made? When would you use a
>standard dry when you would not use a parachute? I gladly accept your
>sincere help.
James,
Parachute flies work well in many situations but don't do well in fast
water. Riffled or "nervous" water tends to swamp them. Then I use
standard or more heavily hackled flies.
Parachutes are particularly effective when fishing spring creeks because
the water moves slowly and the trout can see them much better at longer
distances than a standard dry fly. The standard dry fly appears as points
or specks on the water's surface outside of the trout's round window of
vision. Everything outside this window looks like a mirror (look up at the
surface from the bottom of a swimming pool to see this effect) and the
hackles and tail stick into this meniscus and are visible. The first good
look a trout gets at a regular dry fly is when the wings (the highest
point on the fly) come into the window followed by the rest of the bug.
With a parachute fly, the body of the fly penetrates the film and is
visible much more clearly and farther away than a standard dry fly and the
hackles still make the little impressions on the surface film (like the
legs of the natural). This gives a picture more like a struggling or
trapped emerger and looks like easy pickings - less chance of the bug
flying away before the trout gets to it. It also helps your fly stand out
in a heavy hatch. One of the big reasons parachutes became so popular in
the 70's is that they could be tied with larger, (size 14 hackle often
used on a size 16 fly) webbier hackle with fewer turns (usually 3 or so)
and good genetic hackle wasn't widely available. The old Indian capes
rarely had smaller than a #16 hackle and the feather length was minuscule
by today's standards. As fly tying became more popular good materials
became more scarce. Parachutes were effective with lower quality hackle.
The drawback to parachutes in heavier water is that they don't float as
well as regular dries. For the dry fly to be effectively fished, you need
to see it on or above the water and you can't when it is swamped.
A little trick if you've lost your last parachute is to take a regular
dry fly and clip the bottom of the hackle even with the bottom of the
body. This will drop the body into the film similar to your parachute.
If you want the back of the fly to sink a little bit, trim the tail to
half the size and you will have an instant emerger. If you need a nymph
cut off the rest of the hackle. Don't hesitate to perform surgery on your
flies to make what you need if you don't already have it. You can always
tie up or buy more later.
Hope this helps,
Dan
Dan Gracia
Orvis West Coast Fly Fishing Schools
DGr...@aol.com
If you kill that big fish you can't catch 'em again. So what if they eat
other fish? If you kill the big ones there will only be little ones left
(funny how that works!).