Probably in response to the turn of the weather, the sight of free-flowing water in the nearby creek (which, incidentally, never did flood beyond a few empty fields, downstream of us!), and the recent visit to MN, I was struck with the urge to set up and tie at least a couple of flies, today.
Nothing unusual, but good to feel the tug of the thread and the roll of fibers between the fingers.
This was a pair of #12 Parachute Adams, with the following components:
- Hook – #12 Dry Fly 1xF and wide gape
- Hackle – #12 Rusty grizzly
- Body – Amber (with a touch of brown) Super Fine dubbing (from the dispenser box)
- Tail – Rusty barred feather fibers from a Bugger Pack feather
- Parachute Post – White calf hair
Start with the hook firmly fixed in the vise. Sorry about the unclean image edges. For some reason, WordPress is failing to actually display the edited versions of pictures, even after repeated updates…hmmm…
Thread started a bit behind the eye, then wound back to form a foundation to the beginning of the bend. As I often do, a small bump, there, to help keep the tail elevated.
A couple of dozen fibers from one of the Bugger Pack feathers, pulled, lined up, and tied in at the base of the tail.
Trim the ends, tie them down, and wrap forward to the eye, then back maybe 1/4 of the length.
Calf hair cut, stacked, lined up (tips forward), then tied in at that 1/4-1/3 point.
Wrap to a neat post, then turns to the base of the tail.
Dub from the tail, forward. Thickening as you head to the base of the post.
Tie the trimmed base end of the hackle to the shank of the hook, then a few turns up the post, followed by wrapping back down to the shank and dubbing forward. Once that cone is set on the nose, two quick turns back to the base of the post.
Six wraps of the hackle, then whip finish on the base of the post. I did one turn over the hackle, one under, then another over, before whip finishing to lock it all in.
Trim the rest of the hackle loose, stray fibers, and the thread. Good drop of head cement on the threads where you cut it loose, and you are done.
The first one seemed a bit disorganized, but the second came together a bit more quickly and in better order.
I decided not to trim the post hairs, just yet. Let’s see how my vision does on the water, before I take away some of that flash of white!
Looking forward to getting back on the rivers. 55 days, 7 hours, 22 minutes to go!
Tight lines.