Harrop's Last Chance Cripple - FLY OF THE WEEK - October 26, 2009

FLY OF THE WEEK - Harrop's Last Chance Cripple

Eric Austin gives us our fly of the week this time around. Actually he gives us a twofer. The pattern used has a variation that works well for Eric and he gave us both flies to add to our arsenal.

Eric undoubedly does well with that fly because he presents it so well !!

Very nice fly and tutorial. :smile:
Thank you Eric.

Another excellent fly. I've had great success with cripples so this version (baetis) will have a plce in my box. For some reason, I've found CDC flies fairly easy to spot on the water.

REE

I've tied and fished this fly often for both the PMD and Baetis hatches. I usually tie an olive biot body for the Baetis version, and I've had success with both. This is a deadly pattern during emergences of many Mayfly species and I'm never without some in my box. I've even tied up some larger sizes for the Green Drake and Flav emergences.

Kelly.

Nice post Kelly, I too have used an olive bodied version of the cripple for Baetis. I've also used both the Green Drake and Brown Drake versions and caught big fish on both patterns. One I like even better for the Brown Drakes is that big emerger that Harrop does, almost like a wet fly with a big CDC wing angled back and partridge hackle. I think I had a version photographed around here. Nope, but there's one on Hans' site here:
http://www.danica.com/flytier/eausti...ke_emerger.htm
I've had more success with this fly during the Brown Drake hatch on Henry's Fork than even the Brown Drake Cripple. It really is amazing, but once it's really wet, it's hard to keep floating, and for some reason known only to the fish, it works best when floating high. I know, it's counterintuitive, it's an emerger that fishes best dry, but that's been my experience.
Eric