In my search for a great PMD pattern, I bought something I have to call a puffball. This ball of fluff didn’t even look like a natural mayfly much. The wing was white CDC, The thorax was pale yellow CDC, and even the body seemed like it was pale yellow CDC, then it had split tailfibers.
My friend told me it would never catch a fish because it did not look like the natural enough, I did not have success with the puffball thing until I fished a breezy day and covered it with Frogs Fanny.
The breeze whipped the puffball back and forth, skimming the top of the water, and a trout hit it so quickly and hard I never even thought to set the hook. In retrospect the puffball was acting like the mayflies when they dip in the water. I then offered the fly to the willows.
Has anyone ever heard of a fly like this before, the fly shop I bought it from closed it’s doors, or was it just a fluke that it was hit?
What you were doing was ‘dapping.’ Bob Boyle of Stone Fly fame and feature writer for Sports Illustrated just did a book on it. Like a fly tumbling through fast water the dapped fly does not give the trout much time to examine it. I believe it is the action and the quick dimpling of the surface more than what the fly looks like up close or is made of that attracted your trout. The trout sees ‘life’ and strikes.
I have used CDC puffs to tye an emerger, (very new at this dry fly tying stuff I have only tied about 20 dries) but from what I remember of the fly, I can not think of a way to make it come together in my head or a pattern. What I remember of the puffpall was that I had to wet the CDC to thread the hook because it was everywere.
If the pattern doesn’t matter, how can you make a puffball. I have only seen the little cdc puffs and the longer tree like things in the tying materials.
If it’s like the caddis pattern, then I would say, start your thread and wrap back towards the bend. Tie in your tail material. Tie in a pale yellow cdc feather by the tip, wrap your thread forward to where the wing will go and then wrap the cdc forward to that point. You want the cdc barbules to pop out towards the front to simulate legs. Tie in the cdc wing and then either continue wrapping the body cdc to the front of the wing and tie off or tie the cdc off behind the wing and dub a thorax. I hope this makes sense. If not let me know.
Yes, of course, you are trying to fool a trout with a fly, no different than floating something ugly quickly through fast pocket water. A quick glance, a quick strike. It is all in the game. In a month or two Bob Boyles book will be out. I wrote a “letter” after he sent me a spool of Blow Line and insisted I try it and he included it in his book, not to give him a free plug but check the book out if you see it in a store…Good luck,…Bob
I had used floating fly line a 9ft 5x tapered leader to a cherynoble ant and the little puffball tied off of the ant on 6x tippet with lots of frogs fanny. I think the ant helped to keep the 6x tippet out of the water so that the puff ball could do its thing.
I will try that again this year if I can get the puff ball right.
It took me 2 hours and all I had was white cdc but I think I got it.
I wrapped the body with 2cdc, after 1 cdc parachute, I dubbed pmd color to the thorax because it looked very white and the shape was not right, then teased it out with velcro. I forgot the tail.
