This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Green Drake Hairwing Dun.
The fly was created by Rene Harrop in the 1980’s. In fact, I found a Fly Fisherman magazine article Rene wrote explaining how he developed the Hairwing Dun.
Looks like the fly was born in Rene’s mind as he fished the Firehole River. Evidently, mayflies were hatching and he didn’t have a likely looking imitation. He pulled out an Elk Hair Caddis and made a few changes “with some judicious manicuring”, making it into a mayfly imitation. It caught fish. And that experience started the mind of a fly tying designer thinking…how can I make it work better?
Harrop started with a Blue Wing Olive imitation and quickly added the Brown Drake, Adams, Hendrickson-Quill Gordon, Light Cahill, Pale Morning Dun, and Trico. Obviously, the Western Green Drake made the cut as well.
I pulled this fly out of my Green Drake box. I’m sure it’s caught a fish or two. Always good to have several different profiles in the box to change when fish are ignoring the flies you’ve used in the last day or two.
Tie some up and give it a try.
Materials |
|
Hook: | Standard dry fly, #10 – 14 |
Thread: | Black 6/0 |
Tail | Grizzly hackle dyed olive-yellow |
Body: | Dark olive dubbing |
Hackle: | Grizzly hackle dyed olive-yellow |
Rib: | Bright yellow floss |
Wing: | Black or dark gray calf-elk hair |
Enjoy…go fish!
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