Western Green Drake

[JohnScott]

Winds blowing 30 mph plus today with gusts expected to be higher in the mountains, so instead of fishing I was playing around at the fly tying desk. My destination tomorrow has a regular hatch of Western Green Drakes, so I dreamed up this little guy ( size 12 ) and thought I would give him a shot at some wild and native cutthroat tomorrow.



Sorry for the lousy picture - best I could get in many attempts. The fly consists of moose body hairs for the tail captured by a furled olive antron extended body, which was then wrapped forward far enough to make a wing of the tag end. A brown hackle was tied in, then five strands of peacock herl for the thorax. The hackle was wrapped forward in five or six turns over the herl thorax, tied in and then clipped underneath for a "thorax" version.

Next up is an emerger pattern using Scott Sanchez' PFD concept. If I can get it right, and a decent photo, I'll add it before I go tomorrow.

The question is - would you hike four miles up a mountain trail with just two of the adults and two of the emergers in your fly box on the chance they might catch some cutts up to 18" ??

Can't answer that one for myself right now, but ......

[Steve Molcsan]

May I ask where the regular Green drake hatch is and what type they are?

And oh yes I won't tell a sole if your share the where

Steve

[ducksterman]

John, you must be living on the edge. If you have time to take the pictures...post & ask....you have time to ty more...and make the question academic.......let us know how things went.

BTW ...a nice use of the furled extended body.

[JohnScott]

May I ask where the regular Green drake hatch is and what type they are? ... Steve

Steve -

They are in Idaho and they are the BIG ones !!

John

P.S. You can tell that to every sole that walks by.

[JohnScott]

John, you must be living on the edge. If you have time to take the pictures...post & ask....you have time to ty more...and make the question academic.......let us know how things went.

BTW ...a nice use of the furled extended body.

Duck -

I've fished this stream many times and, unless it changed dramatically over the winter with the exceptional snow and run-off we had, I can catch a lot of nice cutts there with any number of "proven" patterns in well known spots.

Thought two only of an experimental pattern would make an interesting challenge. I did fish a similar PFD emerger one day there last year with some success. Consider the two emergers an insurance policy, paid for with careful casting angles and lanes.

John

[JohnScott]

Here's the PFD emerger ....



( Size 12 Dai-Riki 135 hook, pheasant tail and chickabou for the shuck, biot body, PMD dubbing on the thorax, black closed cell foam for the "personal floatation device," snowshoe hare's foot fibers for wing for extra floatation, and brown hackle wound parachute style around the PFD. )

and the pair together ....



Two of each tomorrow, and I decided to put in two renegades "just in case." The renegades will be flies of last resort. I mean I'm going to hike 8 or 9 miles - one backup pattern isn't asking too much, is it ??

[ducksterman]

John, do you fish damsel fly nymphs ....if so you might be interested in Ken Hanley's "Furled Damsel"....tied with antron.

Also I suppose I could experiment but can you describe how you capture the moose hair?

[EdD]

I would like to nominate your Western Green Drake for FotW honors, if you are interested.

Ed

[Normand]

how about a top view of the PFD emerger?

[tigfly]

The green drake looks very nice! Do you secure it at the back end or does it just furl around the moose hairs? I can already think of some versions to tie for myself. It looks simple and quick, which is a big plus for me.
Good luck with it!

Glenn