Tying off a Parachute Differently

[Byron haugh]

Steven,
Thanks. IRPON
Byron

[Silver Creek]

Ian Moutter, who defintely has the street cred in England that Borger has here, argues that the parachute is more a true sub-imago than is the catskill. Moutter points out that a Catskill's hackle collar will push the bundled tail into the water where it represents the shuck of an emerging dun.

Because I believe the parachute represents a true adult, I am not a fan of tying off on the post. I tie the collar concave side down, and I don't want the hackle pushed up. Further, I have found (YMMV) that a tie-off on the the post is more likely to come apart than a tie off, behind the hook-eye.

I have both of Ian Moutter's books. In Tying Flies The Paraloop Way, he has a photo on pg 59 of a paraloop and a traditional hackled dry fly illustrating what you say. The tail of the traditionally hackled fly is under water. The paraloop, like the parachute, has it's hackle above the fly body; and like the parachute, most of the body of the paraloop is under the film. To quote Moutter, "the paraloop sits in the water".

The question then is whether this position of the paraloop/parachute fly looks more like an emerger or a fully formed adult?

[Buddy Sanders]

Wow,

As long as the trout eats it, why does it matter what it 'thinks' it is? (I can't get my head around the trout 'thinking' at all.)

I can't even figure out why it matters what it looks like to us.

If it don't work, try a different fly? If it does....

Basics of dry fly selection:

Can I see it on the water is the first priority. Do the trout eat it is the second. There isn't an important third....

Guess it just gives folks something to postulate on.

Buddy

[Byron haugh]

Buddy,

I guess this is why it matters, at least to me:

If you don't know what the trout are taking and the stage of insect they are taking, you don't know what artificial to present. And, you don't know what type of presentation to use. Sometimes you only get one chance to have that trout take your presentation. So, it gives you an advantage if you know just what to present and just how to present it.

A lot of trout will disappear if you are floating a number of "guesses" at him..............

Just my opinion though.

Here's my version of a similar fly in the paraloop style:

[Steven]

I have both of Ian Moutter's books. In Tying Flies The Paraloop Way, he has a photo on pg 59 of a paraloop and a traditional hackled dry fly illustrating what you say. The tail of the traditionally hackled fly is under water. The paraloop, like the parachute, has it's hackle above the fly body; and like the parachute, most of the body of the paraloop is under the film. To quote Moutter, "the paraloop sits in the water".

The question then is whether this position of the paraloop/parachute fly looks more like an emerger or a fully formed adult?

Here's the question, I would ask in return: While emerging, does the husk hang down in the water (a la a klinkhamer) or does it lie flat in the meniscus? If it lies flat, then the argument for a parachute acting as an emerger holds.

[Byron haugh]

Steven,
The widely famous and popular Sparkle Dun assumes is indeed a "TRAILING" shuck. Mathews and Jurack patterned it after the floating insects they saw still trying to escape their shucks.
What do you think?

Last summer I caught such an insect and photographed it. It's shuck was "trailing"
Byron

[Silver Creek]

Here's the question, I would ask in return: While emerging, does the husk hang down in the water (a la a klinkhamer) or does it lie flat in the meniscus? If it lies flat, then the argument for a parachute acting as an emerger holds.

Honestly Steven, I think it can do both. I do know that I see a lot of discarded shucks in the film during hatches. You've probably seen them also. Some of the shucks probably sink as well. So I don't think is one or the other.

Here's a video of mayfly emergence. From the underwater camera view of the emergence in the window it is hard to tell whether the nymphal shuck is in the film or just under the film. It doesn't look like a Klinhammer to me though. The shuck looks more horizontal than vertical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UjlT7fqJ1s

[Byron haugh]

Got this photo off the web:



Here's my Spring PMD #16 Paraloop:

Not quite the same insect, I think

[Silver Creek]

Wow,

As long as the trout eats it, why does it matter what it 'thinks' it is? (I can't get my head around the trout 'thinking' at all.)

I can't even figure out why it matters what it looks like to us.

If it don't work, try a different fly? If it does....

Basics of dry fly selection:

Can I see it on the water is the first priority. Do the trout eat it is the second. There isn't an important third....

Guess it just gives folks something to postulate on.

Buddy

Buddy,

If a fish eats it that is all good; but the best fly fishers, in my view, have a methodology on how to choose the fly to use. When you say, "If it don't work, try a different fly", are we to assume that you do that randomly or is there some way of deciding what fly to choose? If there is a method, how do you chose? Or do you play the fly box lottery hoping to get lucky?

Fly fishing is not random. Fly choice is just like reading the water. I doubt you would recommend that the fly fisher cast randomly hoping that there is a fish in that inch deep water. That is like the the hunter shooting randomly in the woods hoping to hit a deer. I suspect you would recommend that a fly fisher not randomly choose what fly to use but that is what you seem to be implying we should do.

Can you not see that is exactly what your post is suggesting? As long as we can see the fly that should be the only criteria. I missed angler visibility of the fly fly listed under the size, shape, color and behavior criteria of matching the hatch. There are alternative ways of locating the fly.

The reason we are interested in why a fish takes a fly is that it also gives us information why a fish will not take a fly. What a fish thinks a fly represents is important in deciding what fly to use.

[Steven]

Steven,
The widely famous and popular Sparkle Dun assumes is indeed a "TRAILING" shuck. Mathews and Jurack patterned it after the floating insects they saw still trying to escape their shucks.
What do you think?

Last summer I caught such an insect and photographed it. It's shuck was "trailing"
Byron

I don't fish Sparkle Duns, but my assumption would be that the fly doesn't ride horizontally but rather diagonally with the "shuck" and body hanging below the wing a la a klinkhamer. Your typical parachute doesn't.