Fishing the Evening Rise VI A Parachute that Floats

I use a #14 Parachute fly for the evening rise. I have experimented with a few different materials for the same basic pattern, and was heavily influenced by a wonderful Two Minute Parachute video. Two minutes is as long as I like to spend on any fly, because I go through so many every season.

My trusted pattern for fishing the mayfly hatch in Hawkes Bay is a modified Parachute Adams. I modified to make it quicker to tie, and to make it more buoyant. This required three changes from the original pattern. Using a poly yarn for the parachute post is far quicker and easier than working with natural fibres. A relatively bushy tail of deer hair works better than feathers and helps with the buoyancy. Floss bodies are far quicker and easier to tie than a dubbed body, and do not absorb water like a dubbed body.

Simon Lusk’s Parachute

Thread 6/0 Olive Veevus

Hook Kamasan B175 #14

Parachute Post McFlyon

Tail Deer hair (Harvested and tanned rather than bought)

Body Green Floss (anything will do)

Hackle Grizzly (I use Metz Grade 2 Saddle because that is what i have. )

There are a few things about this fly that are not conventional, but I like because they have stood the test of time. The first is using a heavy nymph hook. I really like the Kamasan B175 because I cant remember the last time one opened out on a fish, and I fish a lot with a B175. I tie a bushy tail of deer hair because it really helps with the buoyancy. I like the floss body rather than the dubbing because it doesn’t absorb water.

This fly is designed to be dressed relatively heavily on a heavy gauge hook so it is durable. The evening rise is a short, intense period where changing flies costs fish, so I want a fly that floats and a fly that lasts.

The pattern is consistent with my tying colour blind philosophy, I do not worry too much about the colours and would happily tie the fly with different coloured materials if I ran out of the green floss or the grizzly hackle.