Parachute Post Materials

[Diane]

Hi, folks. What are your favorite materials for high visibility parachute posts? I'm thinking about bright colors and probably artificial material. Brand names welcome.

Thanks!

Diane

[cheech]

I like to use Polypropelene floating yarn for my posts. Just double it up under the hook shamk and tie it in that way. I like it because it's cheap, it doesn't create any bulk for the body of the fly, it's easy to see, and IT FLOATS!

[Ray Kunz]

In a book "Hooked on Flies' by Black there is an interesting suggestion. While Mr.Black uses calf tail for parachute wings he does cite some advantages of using a gold/cream color for visibility. This seems to be logical when there might be small white bubbles on the water.

[cheech]

In a book "Hooked on Flies' by Black there is an interesting suggestion. While Mr.Black uses calf tail for parachute wings he does cite some advantages of using a gold/cream color for visibility. This seems to be logical when there might be small white bubbles on the water.

I agree. I rarely use white because of this. In fact when I tie parachute midges, I usually use an orange post. To me, the chartreuse posts look too much like white in low light conditions.

[Ray Kunz]

And also, My last order of WHITE poly-yarn from Hook & Hackle were much more nicely crinkled than most of my other pieces of the same material including earlier samples of white. Now if their AMBER color was this crinkled I'd be happy. I know there are other more expensive poly-yarns that stress this crinkled feature to reduce matting but I was buying for tying classes and was on a budget.

[Joe Billingsley]

Widow's Web. It's the best poly material I've found and it comes in many colors. Try pink for some of your posts. It shows up very well.
Joe

[Darryl]

By far my favorite material for parachute posts are Turkey T-Base feathers or Turkey Flats. I'm not a purist when it comes to natural vs. synthetic materials, but I do prefer naturals. To me, the T-base feathers are extremely durable and highly visible. Especially the dyed ones. Besides that, I think that they make a prettier fly. Usually, I'll tye up some with the standard white posts, and in additon to those I'll tye some with dyed pink and dyed orange T-Base feather posts. Really it depends on the conditions of the water which of those colors (white, orange or pink) is most visable. Obviously, white is not the choice if there's a whole bunch of surface foam. Anyway, I use this material on flies from size #12 down to #22 (after #22 it doesn't really matter which color it is - I can't see it anyway).

Natural White as well as dyed turkey T-Base feathers and flats are available through Stone River Outfitters (a spronsor here). That's where I get mine.

-Darryl

[Jamie Caddick]

My personal favourite is "Para Post Wing" by Hareline Dubbin. I use it for all of my parachute flies here in the shop and it is also probably the best selling item in the shop for parachute posts.

It comes in Dark Grey, Fl. Chartreuse, Fl. Orange, Fl. Yellow, Hot Pink, Light Grey, Medium Dun, White and is treated with "Water Shed". It is easy to work with, highly visible and most shops carry it (at least around here anyway).

[rawfish]

Where can you buy this parapost stuff, it sounds excellent.

[lou t]

I like calf's hair/tail. Comb it out and stack it 'pointy end" down. When tying it in, the thin, long tapered hair ends give a smooth tapered body.