What it is
Leonard Halladay tied the Adams on the Boardman River in Michigan in 1922 as a general mayfly, and a hundred years on it is still the dry more anglers reach for than any other when trout are taking off the top and nobody can name the insect. It is fished across Australia: on the alpine creeks and lakes of the Snowy Mountains, where NSW DPIRD's guide puts a size 14 to 16 Parachute Adams on both, in the Victorian high country, on the New England tablelands, and on Tasmania's lakes and rivers where the mayfly hatches are the best in the country. The parachute version has largely replaced the classic hackled tie because the post can be seen and the fly sits in the film the way a dun does.
Anatomy
The parachute tie, from the bend forward: a tail of grizzly and brown hackle fibres mixed. A slim, tapered body of grey dubbing, muskrat or a fine synthetic. An upright post of white calf hair or polypropylene yarn, set a third of the way back from the eye. A parachute hackle, grizzly and brown mixed, wound horizontally around the base of the post so the barbs lie flat on the water. A thread head.
The classic tie replaces the post with two upright, divided wings of grizzly hen hackle tips, and winds the mixed hackle conventionally around the shank behind and in front of them.
Key features
- The grey-brown blend. Grizzly and brown hackle mixed give a mottled, no-colour-in-particular look that passes for most mayflies at most sizes. That is why it covers hatches nobody has matched.
- The post. White on a grey fly, visible in broken alpine light and at dusk on a lake; the fish sees only the hackle footprint and the body in the film.
- The footprint. A parachute hackle floats the fly flush, the posture of a dun on the water. The classic tie rides higher and suits faster water.
- Size is the variable. The same fly in an 18 is a midge or a small mayfly; in a 12 it is a large dun or a searching dry. Carry three sizes rather than three patterns.
Typical materials
| Part | Typical material |
|---|---|
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, size 12 to 18 |
| Thread | 8/0 or 70 denier, grey or black |
| Tail | Grizzly and brown hackle fibres, mixed |
| Body | Grey dubbing: muskrat, or a fine grey synthetic |
| Post | White calf body hair or polypropylene yarn (parachute tie) |
| Wings | Grizzly hen hackle tips, upright and divided (classic tie) |
| Hackle | Grizzly and brown rooster, mixed, parachute or conventional |
| Head | Thread |
Fishing it
Fish it on a floating line with a long enough leader that the fly can drift without the fly line showing in the lane. On a creek, drop it on the seam and the tail of a pocket; on a lake, cover the rises rather than the empty water between them. If fish are bubbling and refusing, drop a size before you change pattern; if they keep refusing, they may be on the emerger, and a Klinkhammer is the next fly.
The parachute post is the point. You need to see the fly, and you need the hook to sit in the film rather than on it. If it starts to skate, you are fishing it, not drifting it: mend or recast. Carry it next to a Pheasant Tail for the days the fish want the nymph instead, and next to a Woolly Bugger for the hour before the rise starts.
