On most Northern Maine mud bottom ponds we have a hatch the locals call The Giant Green Drake. I had tried over the years to come up with an effective, easy to tie pattern for this amazing hatch. I tried extended bodies, giant classic style dries, and the biggest ugliest comparadun you have ever seen. About 10 years ago I was having pretty good results fishing a size 10 Royal Wulff during this hatch. My buddy and I were having a pretty fine week of fishing. We hit the hatch perfect. We thought we had the answer. On the last night of our vacation we shared the pond with an older gent who proceded to show us what fishing a Drake hatch could be. He caught (and released) 3 times as many fish as the 2 of us combined. He was catching Brookies on nearly every cast. Funny how you can go from happy and satisfied to feeling like a newbie in a couple of hours. As soon as the fishing started to slow we hauled @$$ to shore to intercept the old gent. We asked him what he was using and all we could get was "modified Hornberger".

So this fly started life as a Horberger and went downhill from there. This is the only pattern I now carry for the GGD hatch. I have had amazing results. I believe the Brookies mistake it for a drake emerger. As far as fishing methods go I fish it pretty much like a bass lure. Gink it up. Cast just beyong the rise and let it sit a couple of seconds. If no strike just twitch forward a couple of inches and let it sit again. That usually does the trick!

hook - Mustad 94831 #10 (or any 2xl 1 or 2 xfine)
body - dark olive dubbing fairly heavy
underwing - 8 or 10 yellow bucktail fibres
wing - clump of woodduck streamer style
hackle - brown dry fly grade (or dun or furnace or......)