I’m a big fan of Bob Jacklin of West Yellowstone. Last summer (2014), my son and I were lucky enough to be guided by him on the Madison…between the lakes. We got some really nice Browns.
The fly used? His March Brown Spinner. The fly’s namesakes weren’t around, but the fly worked like a charm.
This summer, I didn’t get to go at the best fishing time. Went in mid-August instead of early to mid-July. The “usual suspects” weren’t really working…PMD’s and Caddis patterns.
No real hatches at all. I wanted to fish dries, so I finally thought I’d give Bob’s fly a try.
It saved my pride. Only pattern that worked. Personally, I think it is the silouhette from below that makes it so enticing.
Poor quality photos taken with my phone, but gives you an idea.
Yes, grizzly hackle around a closely cropped poly post.
Obviously, trout are opportunistic. If, like myself, you would prefer to catch fewer fish in order to do so on a dry, this fly seems to make sense. If trout have had good experiences with meals that offered a similar silouhette, they might (and obviously do) grasp the opportunity for a repeat even if there is no spinner fall happening.
I would not use it if there were a good hatch going on. I would use an imitation of that hatch. But, as a “searching”, “attractor”, or “enticing” pattern, this one fills the bill with me…
They were almost certainly taking it as a Hecuba aka Drake Mackeral. They’re hatching sporadically on all area freestones and that section of the Madison is “close enough” to being a freestone that I expect some are popping there, too. We use a commercial pattern called a Brindle Chute that looks almost identical except has a darker hackle.
It resembles John Gierach’s favorite searching fly, a hare’s ear parachute. He ties it with moose mane tail, slim hare’s ear body, grizzly hackle and a white post of turkey flat fibers. He gives Ed Schroeder credit for the original pattern.
I also persist with dry flies, even when no fish are rising.
What’s interesting here is the selectivity of trout to this searching pattern. Walter is probably right. Even after the hatch, trout may be searching for stray hecubas.
I have cut the paracute post off of a paracute adams and used it as a spinner pattern. It can be a substitute when you don’t have spinner patterns. Cutting the top and bottom off of a traditional palmered hackled dry fly will also work.
It has worked on the Madison as well as the Snake in Jackson…July through Sept.
Sure it would also work when there are March Brown spinner falls and also Brown Drake spinner falls…
