wing? Is the fly less effective without the additional color and second wing?
Must you wrap the two feathers and mixed colors on the para adams
wing? Is the fly less effective without the additional color and second wing?
Do you mean for the hackle? I do sometimes, especially on larger (#12 and up) flies, but just as often only use grizzly hackle and the fish don't mind. I guess technically, it's not an Adams at that point; up to others to decide if that's important, I don't care.
Regards,
Scott
You can use just one cree feather and get the same results form a brown and grizzly rabbed together.
Ghost.
On parachute adams i do not use the brown. I only use a grizzly. I like it more because i think it looks more like a mosquito and i fish over mosquitos all the time
Hi Deepcreek,
My answer to your question is a highly definitive "Yes" and "No." If someone were paying me to tie a Parachute Adams, I would feel obligated to tie those flies by the book, i.e. with brown and grizzly hackle. If I'm tying the flies for personal use or if I may give them to a friend, the hackle is purely my choice---all brown, all grizzly, mixed brown and grizzly or sky blue pink for that matter. I think that far too many fly tyers spend way too much time worrying about using exactly the right, by-the-book material and 99% of the time the fish could care less. Get the size and right and you will catch fish most of the time. 8T
I think that Eight Thumbs has a very important point here. So many tiers think that they must follow a fly recipe to the last detail or else the fly is useless. This is getting rediculous with the proliferation of similar, look-alike, materials these days. I know of one good tier who is into this to the point of breaking the family bank just to keep pace. If variations in materials makes a difference that is good, but beyond that it gets rediculous.
Many liberties are taken in fly tying. If you're tying flies for personal use, there are no (okay...maybe a few) rules.
That said, you probably won't find many fly shops selling para Adams without mixed grizz/brown hackle. The dressing specifies both hackle colors, and I don't think it would be reasonable for a fly lacking one of the hackle colors to be commercially sold as a para Adams. I say this even though a variety of wing materials (calf, poly, Z-lon, etc) still seem to be accepted commercially.
Tie a para Adams with only grizzly, another with only brown, and a third with both hackle colors. There will be a slight difference in appearance: lighter-, darker- and medium-toned, respectively. But the para Adams is still a general pattern and not imitative of any particular hatch. Unless your fishing over trout that are especially fond of a traditionally-tied para Adams, there's nothing to entirely rule out the potential of your single-color version; in some instances, it could more effective than the traditional tie. I think the errors many of us make in fly size, insect stage or presentation will often be more detrimental than a fly with "slightly off" hackle color.
1 grizzly varaiant should do the trick.
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