This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is about the Parachute Chernobyl and Joe Cantrell.
The Parachute Chernobyl is another variant of the original Chernobyl Ant. I highlighted the fly in an earlier TBT post.
“Larry Tullis of Orem, Utah relays the fly’s development in Tying Flies with Foam, Fur, and Feathers by Harrison Steeves. Larry tied up a foam body cicada from a beach sandal in the late 1970’s and shared it with other fly fishing guides on the Green River in Utah, including Mark Forsland. Mark is credited with another iteration in the mid-1980’s, originally known as the Black Mamba to imitate cicadas. When rubber legs were added it morphed into the Chernobyl Ant.”
If you’d like more information, be sure to check out the original Chernobyl Ant post.
The reason I selected the fly is because I stopped in at the Joe Cantrell Outfitters shop to inquire about where I could walk and wade the Clark Fork River in St. Regis, MT. He suggested we give the confluence of the Clark Fork and St. Regis rivers a try and sold me a few Parachute Chernobyls.
My wife and I hit the spot at dusk and again at daylight.
At dusk, I landed a Whitefish, Rainbow, Brown, and Cutthroat, most of them using the Parachute Chernobyl. The next morning, I must have landed at least a dozen on this fly. Most of these fish were in the 15 to 18 inch range.
Now you know why I posted it!
Thanks Joe for helping me out!
Enjoy…go fish!
