Tying off a Parachute Differently

[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?