I was just looking at the parasol patterns on the Orvis website. What is the advantage to fishing a parasol as compared to fishing a small nymph under a dry fly?
A fly tied to a tippet theoretically will get a longer drag free drift than the same fly tied as a dropper. Rarely will the both the dry fly and dropper land in identical current flows and the length of the dropper tippet is usually shorter than the main leader tippet. So generally the dry fly will pull on the dropper fly and vice versa, sooner than a single fly alone.
Another thoeretical advantage of a parasol is that it sets the depth of the fly below the surface. The depth of a dropper nymph varies. I don’t know if this translates to an actual advantage in real fishing.
The second disadvantage is that by casting two flies attached to each other you cannot fish the dry flies as close to the bank as you can with the dry alone or the parasol alone. When using terrestrials close to the bank I use the terrestrial alone without a dropper for that reason. I can be more accurate with a single fly and I get a longer float. When “prospecting” a dry dropper combo can be more productive.
Don’t limit yourself to a dry and an emerger/nymph combo. Just like two nymphs are commonly fished, you can fish two dries.
A fly tied to a tippet theoretically will get a longer drag free drift than the same fly tied as a dropper. Rarely will the both the dry fly and dropper land in identical current flows and the length of the dropper tippet is usually shorter than the main leader tippet. So generally the dry fly will pull on the dropper fly and vice versa, sooner than a single fly alone.
Another thoeretical advantage of a parasol is that it sets the depth of the fly below the surface. The depth of a dropper nymph varies. I don’t know if this translates to an actual advantage in real fishing.
The second disadvantage is that by casting two flies attached to each other you cannot fish the dry flies as close to the bank as you can with the dry alone or the parasol alone. When using terrestrials close to the bank I use the terrestrial alone without a dropper for that reason. I can be more accurate with a single fly and I get a longer float. When “prospecting” a dry dropper combo can be more productive.
Don’t limit yourself to a dry and an emerger/nymph combo. Just like two nymphs are commonly fished, you can fish two dries.
Thanks for the “sage” advice. I have only been seriously fishing for trout a couple of years and have a lot to learn. I typically carry a 3 wt. with a dry and a wet ant pattern in tandem and a 5 wt. with two wet flies in tandem, usually at least one with a bead head. I do okay for a guy who started chasing trout after he was 55 years old. I have learned more from things written here and probably anywhere else. I do pick up a few tips on the river, time to time.
In my experience, the parasol keeps the fly just under the film, imitating an emerger just reaching the surface rather than breaking through the film. It’s possible fish find this stage more vulnerable and less likely to fly away at the last second like a bug in the film might. I find the parasols to be effective when fish are bulging, rather than actually breaking the surface to feed.
Many of you who know me and/or have fished with me know that I love the Parasol Emerger concept. The original concept was developed by Fran Betters, and then Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson came up with their own twist on the pattern.
I fish these flies a lot, but mostly as a still or slack-water indicator while trailing either a dry dropper or a nymph dropper. This method is extremely effective on my favorite spring creek waters. I have a Fly of the Week submission waiting in the wings, so look for it on how to tie both the parasol as well as some of my favorite patterns it is attached to.
Here is one of my many pattern variations:
Kelly.
Kelly,
I was waiting for you to weigh in on this. I’ve seen your parasol emergers and they are dynamite. Eagerly looking forward to the FOTW article.
REE
Never ever heard of any such thing as a Parasol Fly Pattern, so I just had to go surfing on the WWW and sure enough, I came to the conclusion, the parasol is a addition to a existing fly pattern, not a pattern in itself.
Found a good site that covers the “Who, What, Why, When & How” about the whole process…
I had found that site earlier today and saw how to build one of the critters. Being a little on the slow side and understanding the basic concept I did a pretty poor job of tying a size 16 zebra nymph with a size 12 bushy elk hair caddis (or something similar) in place of the parasol. I know I’m not going to catch any fish on the parasol, I thought I might on the EHC. I will fish it from the nymph body and see what happens.