Western Green Drake

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Winds blowing 30 mph plus today with gusts expected to be higher in the mountains, so instead of fishing I was playing around at the fly tying desk. My destination tomorrow has a regular hatch of Western Green Drakes, so I dreamed up this little guy ( size 12 ) and thought I would give him a shot at some wild and native cutthroat tomorrow.

Sorry for the lousy picture - best I could get in many attempts. The fly consists of moose body hairs for the tail captured by a furled olive antron extended body, which was then wrapped forward far enough to make a wing of the tag end. A brown hackle was tied in, then five strands of peacock herl for the thorax. The hackle was wrapped forward in five or six turns over the herl thorax, tied in and then clipped underneath for a “thorax” version.

Next up is an emerger pattern using Scott Sanchez’ PFD concept. If I can get it right, and a decent photo, I’ll add it before I go tomorrow.

The question is - would you hike four miles up a mountain trail with just two of the adults and two of the emergers in your fly box on the chance they might catch some cutts up to 18" ??

Can’t answer that one for myself right now, but …

2

May I ask where the regular Green drake hatch is and what type they are?

And oh yes I won’t tell a sole if your share the where:D

Steve

3

John, you must be living on the edge. If you have time to take the pictures…post & ask…you have time to ty more…and make the question academic…let us know how things went.

BTW …a nice use of the furled extended body:cool::cool:.

4

Steve -

They are in Idaho and they are the BIG ones !!

John

P.S. You can tell that to every sole that walks by.

5

Duck -

I’ve fished this stream many times and, unless it changed dramatically over the winter with the exceptional snow and run-off we had, I can catch a lot of nice cutts there with any number of “proven” patterns in well known spots.

Thought two only of an experimental pattern would make an interesting challenge. I did fish a similar PFD emerger one day there last year with some success. Consider the two emergers an insurance policy, paid for with careful casting angles and lanes.

John

6

Here’s the PFD emerger …

( Size 12 Dai-Riki 135 hook, pheasant tail and chickabou for the shuck, biot body, PMD dubbing on the thorax, black closed cell foam for the “personal floatation device,” snowshoe hare’s foot fibers for wing for extra floatation, and brown hackle wound parachute style around the PFD. )

and the pair together …

Two of each tomorrow, and I decided to put in two renegades “just in case.” The renegades will be flies of last resort. I mean I’m going to hike 8 or 9 miles - one backup pattern isn’t asking too much, is it ??

7

John, do you fish damsel fly nymphs …if so you might be interested in Ken Hanley’s “Furled Damsel”…tied with antron.

Also I suppose I could experiment but can you describe how you capture the moose hair?

8

I would like to nominate your Western Green Drake for FotW honors, if you are interested.

Ed

9

how about a top view of the PFD emerger?

10

The green drake looks very nice! Do you secure it at the back end or does it just furl around the moose hairs? I can already think of some versions to tie for myself. It looks simple and quick, which is a big plus for me.
Good luck with it!

Glenn

11

First of all, I would just like to say that I hope Steve was not offended by my “flip” answer to his question. I have had quite a debate with myself today about disclosing the name and whereabouts of this creek, but after spending the afternoon up there, I decided to do my regular Fishing Report on it, so Steve and everyone else will have access to information on it. These Western Green Drakes are also referred to as “flavs” which should answer the other part of Steve’s question.

Second, thanks for the nomination for a FOTW. These things are such a pain to tie, that I don’t think I could stand trying to tie one and do the photo stuff at the same time. That probably answers Duck’s question on how to capture the moose hair tail in the furled antron. It ain’t easy, Duck. Also, I learned this extended body technique during a demo of an adult damsel ( without the tails sticking out ), and adapted it to the drake.

Basically, tie in the antron to the bend. Go back and tie four or five hairs on top of it. Then comb out the antron so it really flares out and try to get all the hairs intertwined with it. Start furling, but try to isolate as many hairs as possible to stick out the side of the partly furled antron extended body. Continue furling. When it is furled tight enough, try to get the end twist to “take” at just the place where the hairs are sticking out of the extended body. Sounds easy, right ?? Like sometimes four, five, six attempts to get any hairs in the right place, and when you are really lucky you just end up with two at the right place. I reinforced the extended body with some flexament.

I took a few minutes this morning before I left to tie up a parachute version of the dun.

When I left home, my fly box had two thorax versions and one parachute version of the dun, two PFD emergers, and two renegades. I caught at least four or five cutts on each of the Western Green Drake patterns, starting with this 17" cutt on the first thorax fly. If you look closely, you can see the extended body and the thorax area.

Here’s another one that took a thorax version, one that had two wings tied in rather than the single wing formed with the tag of the body antron.

This handsome fellow took one of the PFD Emergers.

On the day, the fly box accounted for somewhere around 25 cutts, most between 12" and 15" with a very few smaller than that and a couple bigger. I think I picked up two on the renegades when it got to the point that the fish were totally refusing the drakes. I lost one fly while I was handling one of the bigger cutts to release it. He slipped from my grasp and when the tippet tightened, he broke off the tippet. Several of the flies I brought home are kind of beat up.

John

P.S. Glenn - if you can do this quick and simple, we need to get together so I can learn how to do it.

12

Thanks, John,

I don’t know if this would make things easier… but taken from the Hanley nymph I referenced…you can furl the body without attaching it to the hook…grip the antron in the vise jaws…twist…fold…furl…the furl holds and you can set it aside to secure to the hook when ever and however you want.

At this point I don’t see how this helps with the moose hairs:(.

13

Duck -

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Need to mull that one over a bit more. What if you included a piece of tying thread in with the antron but pulled it out at or near the end of the furled section - then you could “lash” the moose hairs down and “rib” the extended body at the same time, and reinforce the whole thing with flexament ??

May have to give that a try. It almost certainly would be closer to the “simple and quick” application that Glenn is looking for ?? But may not be quite as clean a look as the original approach, at least when it works right.

John

14

Duck -

Plan B is MUCH easier and has several advantages over the original.

Add a piece of tying thread to the strand of antron, making it several inches longer than the antron. After starting the furl, pick out the thread at the point you want the end of the extended body. Continue furling until you are ready to release the antron and furl the body. You have a little latitude to work the thread as close as possible to the end of the body, if it doesn’t end up there.

Tie down the furled antron to complete the extended body. Tie in two moose hairs, adjusting length as you see fit. Take the thread from the end of the antron extended body and wrap it firmly around the moose hair, rib firmly down to the bend of the hook, and tie it off. Add flexament to the finished extended body and tails.

At this point, you can either build more of the fly with the tag end of the antron, or trim it and build whatever style body you want, e.g. dubbed or biot parachute, thorax style, traditional winged dry fly, etc.

This is the prototype for Plan B - a bit on the crude side, but it does show the result.

The big advantages to Plan B are the comparative ease of furling and completing the extended body using this approach, control of the length of the extended body and the length of the tails, using only as many tail fibers as you want, and more readily transitioning to the body of the fly. Also, you can use a smaller, shorter, lighter hook for the same size fly which should make for better floatation.

Thanks for the INSPIRATION.

John

Glenn - go at it, and show us some of the flies you tie with this approach.

15

Your welcome ,John, but thank you for the real inspiration.

I’d like to ask…how about just laying in two moose hairs extended out the tail instead of the thread…wouldn’t they just furl in???

Also re: the stiffness of the extended body…[I note the last fly seems to have a tighter furl]
I’ve been playing around with antron furled bodies for various types of damsel fly nymphs and at first was furling as tight as I could but subsequently decided a looser furl likely will give more motion.

The tight furl should be desirable for dry extended bodies…I maximize the furl by using a hackle pliers and a dubbing twister.

16

Duck -

I tried several different approachs with the moose hair and antron together and couldn’t get it to work except as originally described. One of the problems seems to be that the moose hair is a lot stiffer than the antron fibers and inhibits furling to start with. Maybe someone else could get what you describe to work, but I couldn’t.

The furl is and looks tighter for two reasons ( I think ). First, without the moose hair intertwined with the antron, the antron will twist tighter and more neatly, and when you finish the extended body by letting the twist take over it does furl better and tighter. Second, in the Plan B “prototype,” I only used about 2/3 strand of antron rather than the full strands used in the original version, wanting to get a slimmer extended body on a smaller hook size.

I thought about just doing the furled body without a piece of thread in it, just leaving a tag of the tying thread to rib the moose hair both up and down the furled body, but didn’t think that would be as secure, and would also clutter up the body with too much ribbing effect. Incorporating the thread in the antron before starting the furling was an easier and more efficient task and results in a modest amount of ribbing, probably strengthens the extended body ( minimally ) and should keep the body lifted at the angle intended ??

The extended body does get rather stiff, especially with flexament on it, but that didn’t seem to bother the fish. When you get right down to it, the tails may be much more a “fisherman” and fly tyer thing than a “fish” thing - can the fish even see the tails, especially in the faster water. Might be a “tailless” fly would do just as well as this one - but that wouldn’t make for much of a discussion, now would it ??

John

17

John,

As always, good looking flies. Looks like the fish thought so too! Makes me wish we had that western hatch out this way. I’m likely to try and adapt what you’ve done with to the EGD’s out our way. Like that extended body and Duckster’s inspiration looks like a winner.

18

Funny you mention the tail thing, John. I read last night…article in the new “Fly Fisherman” mag…on Green Drakes…they have 3 tails:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

19

duck -

This guy took a Plan B Western Green Drake with TWO tails this afternoon. Must have flunked math - but, man, was he a nice fish.

The fly was a thorax version. This fish took it on the first cast after he showed himself on a rise to a natural.

The other day, I fished this same spot and there was cutt that rose at least fifteen times in the half hour I was there, and would not take anything I put in his feeding lane, in almost the exact same place I got this one today. No way of know if it is the same fish, but he is just about the same size - but obviously hungrier or smarter or more cooperative or more friendly or more wanting his mug on a website ???

John

20

John, it looks like a killer pattern, I hope to hear good reports, as well as looking forward to the trip with you and Buzz in the comming weeks.

Tight lines buddy!