The Air Head is one of those patterns I always have in my trout box. Sometimes fish will come to it readily but sometimes they will ignore it. I dont use it often but will tie it on when more traditional attractors do not work. Sometimes I just use it just to use it. I also often use it as part of a dry/dropper combo where it makes a great floating indicator that sometimes catches fish..

Gary wrote in his book "The Dry Fly: New Angles" about about this pattern being an important stonefly immitator for some stonefly hatches. He also writes about this fly in his book "Trout Flies" where he describes part of the development process that involved observing it from underwater looking up. One of the keys is the thin transluscent packing foam. Gary's old Bookmailer website used to sell the foam and still may but you can often find it packing for electronics devices. Opaque craft foams do not create the same visual effect.

Once you get it down it is an easy fly to tie.