Hi Folks,
I recently read the’ The Trout & the Fly’ and was interested in their theory surrounding the mirror , the trouts view , the star-burst indentations of feet etc.
The USD Paradun looks a pretty good imitation of a ‘small’ mayfly , elevating the body off the surface and creating that appetizing ‘star-burst’ effect.
However i’m not sure how effective that this imitation is for the ‘larger’ mayfly patterns ,specifically the Greendrake/Ephemera Danica (uk) / ? I tied and trialled a few last year and unfortunately they failed miserably (possibly due to bad tying technique) . There turn over success rate was 10% , and there general float-ability was poor
Question
Does the Danica and/or Greendrake Dun’s body touch the water surface or not? and therefore is the USD a valid imitation for these drakes?
A variation on the USD theme that I have used for a number of years now is O.Edwards - Blade Wing Mayfly - tied on a K3A Swedish upside-down hook. This for me performed better than the USD Paradun ,inducing alot of rises & slashes however it suffered from one major
Achilles Heel, The hook success rate was frustratingly poor. (even after adjusting the hook bend)
Question
Is a large USD hook more of a hindrance than a benefit due to the ‘flaw’ that I describe?
Any views or experiences would be extremely welcome
I suspect Castwell is suggesting you forget about that fancy-schmantzy, upside-down hackle-cracker green drake, and tie some Marinaro style thorax duns.
Why not try an easy Upside dun, tied with a CDC & wood duck(lemon) wing, so the hook point rides upwards? This also gives a nice footprint in the surface film. In use dubbed,biotand quill bodies on these with great success. The instructions were in FlyTyer mag last spring or winter’s edition. Hope this helps,Jamie
QUOTE:Why not try an easy Upside dun, tied with a CDC & wood duck(lemon) wing, so the hook point rides upwards? This also gives a nice footprint in the surface film. In use dubbed,biotand quill bodies on these with great success. The instructions were in FlyTyer mag last spring or winter’s edition.
UNQUOTE:
McMutt… I would be very interested to see a copy of that article. where would I get that???
rgds,
Royd
The article on “The Upside Dun” was in the winter 2004 issue of Fly Tyer beginning on page 28. The author is John J. Capowski. You could probably go to the link below and contact them to get that back issue if they have it. I’ve found that CDC makes a great looking wing on upside down patterns until it gets wet on the stream. It then turns into a very small wisp of a strand which is really hard to see no matter what color it is.
[url=http://www.flyfishingmagazines.com/magazine_ft.shtml:f12ab]http://www.flyfishingmagazines.com/magazine_ft.shtml[/url:f12ab]
Regards,
Mark
[This message has been edited by Mark Vendon (edited 14 February 2006).]
it’s really not a very remarkable fly (the easy usd). I think of it as little more than a space filler…I can photocopy the article/pic for ya roy, if you’d like.
Sorry I didn’t get back soon enough. I’ve been working the past few days. Thanks, guys, for sending the article,as I don’t have a scanner.Mark, the reason you use the lemon woodie is so you can see the fly, AND so the fish see it.Use snowshoe hare foot hair if you don’t like the CDC. The fly works GREAT and is versatile in many colors. Jamie
Tight Lines & Big Smiles
Take A Kid Fishing!!!
[This message has been edited by mcmutt (edited 16 February 2006).]