Gleason-

Dudley?s choice of the Slate Drake Comparadun is a very good one, especially if you?re interested in tying flies to imitate specific hatches. The Comparadun is a ?style? of fly, and there are many examples of tying them, with step-by-step instructions and photos on the Fly Archives section of FAOL.

Sparkle Duns are similar, with the substitution of an antron shuck instead of tails on the Comparadun. The Sparkle Dun is a little easier to tie since you don?t have to fuss as much with split tails, and has the advantage of imitating both the dun and the emerger in one fly. You can find examples on the FAOL archives too.

If you?re not familiar with them, they rely on deer hair wings (not hackle) to provide floation, and sit low on the water. They?re very realistic, durable, and often the choice to fool finicky trout. With a good selection of dry fly dubbing, assorted dry fly hook sizes, and a few shades of deer hair you can imitate virtually all the mayfly duns you?re likely to run into. You can even tie the deer hair in ?elk hair caddis style? with an amber shuck to imitate different caddis (search FAOL fly archives for ?X Caddis?) to create hackle-less flies to imitate flies of all the different caddis hatches.

Another advantage of tying this style of fly for the beginning tyer, is that it helps avoid?.. or at least postpone, a major $ investment in dry fly hackle.

The only downside is that they don?t tend to float as well as hackled flies, and are less visible, in rough water, but this is more than made up for in slow glides, pools, etc where they often out fish more conventional flies.

To tie them you will need:

Dry Fly hooks in a range of sizes 4xlong size 12 (= size , and standard dry sizes 10-18 and up eye 20-24

Thread size 8/0 in olive, black, brown, tan, cream

Dry fly dubbing in a range of colors tan, dark brown, olive, cream, gray (and black and apple green for caddis) being the most useful.

Tailing material- you have a range of options including spade hackle from necks if you have them, or nylon microfibbets in a range of shades including cream, light dun, dark dun, and brown. Or you could simply use amber colored Antron yarn to make shucks for mayflies and caddis.

Wing material- fine deer hair, look for the shortest black tips you can find. It?s usually sold as ?Comparadun Hair? or Coastal Deer Hair and runs $2-4 a patch (3x3?). You can easily get 100 flies from each patch. You?ll want the hair in a few shades, light creamish, medium gray and dark slate gray. For dry flies smaller than 18 or 20, I skip the deer hair entirely and use CDC for wings in the same shades. It saves a lot of swearing.

Optional: some white and light gray poly yarn can be tied in spent wing style to imitate spinners.

Hatches II gives complete dressings for comparaduns to match mayfly duns ( and nymphs, emergers and spinners too.) Caddisflies gives complete dressings for Caddis. These books are great, but more expensive and heavier reading. Dudley?s suggestion of Art Flick?s book is an excellent one. Just convert the recommended fly dressings to Comparadun style by matching tail, body colors and wing shade.

For Isonychia, the Slate Drake Comparadun can be a size 8, 10 or 12 . Late in the season, like now, you?ll mostly have 10 and 12?s. I tie Iso Comparaduns in 12 since they are pretty meaty looking with the dubbed body. I?ll use hackled Dun Variants in 10 because the body is less bulky.) For early bigger Iso in 8, use a 4xlong size 12 dry fly hook like a Mustad 79580, which is the same length as an 8 but floats better because of its lighter wire and conceals the hook. I use this same hook for Eastern Green Drakes etc.)

Hook: mostly standard dry fly size 12, maybe some 10?s
Thread: black
Tail: cream microfibettes (or cream spade hackle or amber antron shuck)
Body: Dark reddish brown (mahogany color) dubbing
Wings: Dark gray coastal deer hair.

For an Isonychia spinner, same except use cream or light gray poly (or cream dry fly hackle) tied spent wing style instead of deer hair wing.

An Isonychia nymph dressing is very similar to a zug bug or prince:

Nymph hook Mustad 9672 (3xlong) size 10 or equivalent
Tail: 3 pheasant tail fibers (Iso nymphs have fringey tails)
Body: Peacock herl
Rib: Gold wire wound counter to herl
Wingpad: Black dyed wing from duck, goose, turkey etc. or black dyed raffia
Legs: amber colored (pheasant tail fibers, partridge, etc.)

If you?re new to tying there?s a lot of great stuff for beginning and intermediate tyers here on FAOL, and people on this board are very helpful, so feel free to ask more questions as they come up!

Good luck, and let us know how you do on the Isonychias. It?s a great hatch? one I can finally see!

peregrines