April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Adam's Parachute

April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Adam's Parachute

The Parachute Adams is perhaps the most important and versatile of all dry flies. It is a must have dry fly in a variety of sizes for fish on trout rivers all over the world. The white post gives the fly fisherman a focal reference point in all types of water. The pattern can be used as a mayfly or as a searching or attractor fly. Fly fishermen in all types of rivers, streams, and lakes should keep several sizes on the top row of the fly box.

Excerpt from:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/intermediate/part21.php

"A lot of people don't understand the significance of parachute flies. These hackled morsels are a lot more than just another dry fly. They land, float and look much different to the fisherman than the standard dry fly. To the fish, they also look much different than a standard dry fly.
First, the body of a parachute dry fly is suspended in the surface film. The only time natural insects have their bodies resting fully in the surface tension or film is during emergence or when they have been captured by that film and lay dying on the surface. For that reason alone, this is an excellent fly to use during the hatch when insects are emerging, and later during the mayfly spinner fall when adult insects have been captured by the surface film and lay dead or dying in that film. These are also the two best times for the fish to capture insects since the insects are most vulnerable at these times.
Second, the hackle on a parachute dry fly looks like the legs of an insect when viewed from the bottom. As an adult insect emerges from its nymphal body, it extends its legs outward to support its weight on the surface tension of the water. As it continues to crawl out of its shuck, it places more weight on its legs until it's free from the shuck. As the shuck floats away, the adult insect dries its wings and eventually flies away. Only during the wing drying phase of this emergence does a standard dry fly look more natural from below than a parachute dry fly.
Again, when the female returns to the water to lay eggs, its wings often get caught by the surface tension of the water and begin to absorb water. The female will spread her legs out to provide support for her body as she dumps her ballast of eggs and tries to rise above the water to fly away. They are rarely successful in flying away, but their legs and wings remain splayed out on the surface as they expire and float downstream. From the bottom, this also looks a lot like a parachute dry fly.
Finally, the post type wing of a parachute dry fly is easy for the fisherman to see. This is very important during heavy hatches and heavy spinner falls. If your fly looks exactly like all the other flies on the water, it's often lost in the crowd and missed strikes are the result. That's a good reason to use a visible post on your parachute flies.