Dry Fly Styles

For those of you that have never fished with me, I will add this to give you more color on me as a tyer/fisher. I prefer to catch fish on flies I tied. I do not enjoy sitting at a tying bench for hours on end, so I prefer easily tied flies.

Nymphs - Zebras and inchworms
Streamers - woolly buggers
Dries - CD's

What do they all have in common,? They can be tied in minutes and have few materials. Now perhaps those flies work well for me because they have to work well since I don't want to tie patterns that take 5 minutes or so. So for me, I've developed confidence in hooking fish with these flies. I've tried fishing the other styles and to be fair because of my confidence in the flies above, maybe I haven't given them the proper chance to work but again my style works for how I want to fish. On a scale of 1 to 10 as far as how a good a tyer/fisherman I am, maybe a 5 or 5.5 but I'm happy with my results, hence I love this sport because any level can enjoy themselves. I enjoy and respect everyone's opinion on this subject and any other topic and hopefully never come off as my opinion is better than anyone else's because that's not the case. If I have come off that way, allow me to apologize.
 
I'm not a big dry fly fisherman. Mostly use them in a dry and dropper setup or fish them when I see fish rising. But I generally prefer the parachute dry fly for most of my dry fly fishing. It is easy to spot if I use a white wing post, it floats reasonably well, and I think the fish like them. I feel like a parachute use adams also does a reasonably good job of imitating a lot of different bugs - not just mayflies. It looks a lot like a grey caddis, and in smaller sizes maybe even a midge.

I also fish a sort of "lazy" Catskill style dry fly fairly often. I say lazy because I tie a lot of my dry flies without wings. Sometimes I'll just tie a single post wing but wrap the hackle Catskill style.

I never really got into comparaduns. The ones I tie never look that great to me, so I rarely fish them. That might be the only reason I don't , actually. We'll... that and even in the larger sizes they really aren't useful in a dry and dropper setup. Catskill flies and parachutes are more versatile in that way.
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:
With all due respect for the fans of Catskill style dries, they're actually the worst of the three (cd,parachute,catskill) to immitate the duns.

Reason? The traditional Catskill style flies are tied with a big "clump" of tail fibers. This actually makes the body of the fly appear larger than it really is.

For skittering, yeah the Catskill style is a bit better, but in my experience, just a couple of twitches does the job when the fish are looking for that movement.

Given a choice, I'd take a well tied (key!) comparadun over a parachute, and lastly a traditional Catskill style pattern. What bug I'm immitating plays a big role in that decision as well. I carry all three styles, and let the fish decide. It's a rare day when the comparadun doesn't win out. It's tough to beat a heavily hackled catskill style fly in rough water though.

Durability is also important to me. Fish teeth and hackle don't play well together. I've got comparaduns in my boxes that have caught dozens of fish. My record is 68 fish on a sulphur comparadun (not all on the same day) before it fell apart.

Fox's and my mentor taught us how to tie comparaduns so they last. I've witnessed Fox catching a crazy amount of fish on the same fly. Fox ties one mean comparadun!
Click to expand...

I'd mostly agree with Ed, above. It really depends on the insect you are imitating, though. I have a little more respect for the parachute tie....maybe 50/50 with CD's, again depending on the fish and the bugs. With bigger insects the CD works well. Catskill flies are worth having for skittering a bit and maybe to use in riffs.

If I had to be limited to one style tie, it would be a parachute: rides low in the water to give a solid silhouette, has a visible post for a wing, poly yarn (post) comes in all colors, is water resistant/dries easily, nip the post short and the dun can be turned into a spinner (I tie them with fairly long hackle).
 
IT's very dependent on the conditions, what type of pattern I use. I some situations one pattern may work better than others, but that doesn't mean I prefer the same patter under different conditions.
 
I catch, probably, 95% of my fish on catskill style flies. They still work.
They key for me I believe, is that I keep my hackle somewhat smaller than the normal formula - which is one and a half to two times the hook gap.
Occasionally, I'll switch to a klinkhammer on a stubborn fish.

I honestly can't even remember the last time I fished a compara-dun

 
parachute and compara dun.....compara in slow moving water
 
My boxes are filled with all different styles of dries, especially the bwo's & sulphurs....last time I was on Penn's (Tues after Memorial Day) I caught trouts and pretty much every single style dry I have, Catskill, parachute, CDC comparemergers, not sure about deer hair comparaduns though, I just don't fish them that much but they do work well for me when little #18/20 olives are coming off the Letort.

My preferred style of fly is the one that fools the fish on that day.
 
Count me in the camp that likes parachute style for many mayfly imitations (although I use others such as CDC for very small olives etc). For caddis, I prefer the Elk Hair style.

Over the course of a trout fishing year, I probably spend more time fishing terrestrials than any other type of dry fly. For these, I strongly favor foam and thin rubber for legs.
 
dynamite
replies.
 
Do hackle stackers with a shuck count as dries? :)
 
Interesting discussion. I'll add my two cents:

A dry fly by definition, I would say must be visible in some part above the surface. Thus the parachute style, particularly if it gets to the "klinkhammer" type, is the lowest riding of the "dries" and should be used when you think the trout are taking bugs just under or in the film. The comparadun is next in depth of the water column and should be used in either the "under or in the film" situation or when you are not sure. Finally, the catskill style is good anytime they are taking flies prepared to alight. Spinner patterns should be reserved for imitating spinners.

This all being said, there may be 2 risers focused presently on bugs in the film, 2 risers focused in or just above the film, and 2 others sipping spinners or taking duns as they dry their wings.

You cannot change your fly that many times to get the optimal presentation for each individual riser. Choose a style with a possibility of being accepted and then cast to the trout that exhibit that preference for taking the natural.

So, to sum up, observe the rise-form of your target trout. Choose a "stage/style" that presents your imitation in the portion of the film that seems to be attracting the most rises. Choose your imitation style based upon this observation and then adjust to further observations about whether your fly is enticing your quarry.

People talk about the lure of trout fly fishing as the thrill of solving a puzzle-- and I agree. The same with deciding which style of dry fly to trust and rely upon. In my opinion, if you are partial to dry fly fishing, you will always enjoy most the times when the Catskill style is the preferred method.
 
Designs that I favor in order by :

Mayfly

Parachute (includes klink)
Compara/Sparkle Dun
Wulff
Harrop Hair Wing Dun
Contemporary Thorax
Snowshoe/CDC emergers
Bent Hackle (specifically Lafontain's variation the Mess)
Palmered
Hackle Fly (catskill minus wings)

Caddis

Antron/X caddis
Elk Hair Caddis

Stonefly

Stimulator
 
Catskills for me. I fish the other styles, and catch with them, but I always seem to catch more on Catskills.

The only exception is an ant, where I prefer a parachute style.
 
Well first let me say that my dry fly game is not nearly as good as my streamer or nymphing game. I use mostly catskills and parachutes when imitating specifics but other than that, terrestrials all the way.

I am starting to up my dry fly game with certain styles etc. but when hoppers and beetles are catching fish, I throw them!
 
dryflyguy wrote:
I catch, probably, 95% of my fish on catskill style flies. They still work.
They key for me I believe, is that I keep my hackle somewhat smaller than the normal formula - which is one and a half to two times the hook gap.
Occasionally, I'll switch to a klinkhammer on a stubborn fish.

I honestly can't even remember the last time I fished a compara-dun
Click to expand...
I've never heard anybody say that catskill flies are tied 1 1/2 to 2 hook gaps. I was taught = to the hook gap. I will tie certain flies with longer hackle, like my royal wulffs always are heavy on hackle. Keep tying them with the short hackle because that's the way they're supposed to be..
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:
With all due respect for the fans of Catskill style dries, they're actually the worst of the three (cd,parachute,catskill) to immitate the duns.

Reason? The traditional Catskill style flies are tied with a big "clump" of tail fibers. This actually makes the body of the fly appear larger than it really is.
Click to expand...
I've never heard that, I've always been told that you tie in a few fibers for the tail. Just saying.
Big clumps of fibers for the tail comes from the wulff style flies.
 
question for the dry fly experts-which way do mayfly spinners and stoneflies returning float down river-head first or tail first?When mayflies emerge ,come to surface,dry their wings and launch do they take off upstream or down..just curious.I honestly don't remember about the latter.
 
Thanks for all the replies! When I first posted this I thought I was the only one using parachutes and everyone else was using comparaduns. I bet I use 50/50 parachutes to catskills. I put my caddis flies in a whole different category. Most of my caddis flies I tie with duck or goose wing feathers and rarely use deer or elk hair. Also spinners I use at times too. I usually try to put some CDC in my spinner wings to help them float.

Are there any species of mayflies you prefer to use one style over another or do you just try to guess off the raise?

I posted this because my original dry flies I tied I'm slowly running out of. I rarely fish dry flies but this year I came across several great hatches (hendricksons, cahills, and sulphurs) . I caught hundreds (probably between 200-300) of fish on dry flies this year compared to my usual 5-50. I usually nymph with the occasional streamer. I won't throw a dry fly unless I see a lot jumping.
 
Chaz wrote:
dryflyguy wrote:
I catch, probably, 95% of my fish on catskill style flies. They still work.
They key for me I believe, is that I keep my hackle somewhat smaller than the normal formula - which is one and a half to two times the hook gap.
Occasionally, I'll switch to a klinkhammer on a stubborn fish.

I honestly can't even remember the last time I fished a compara-dun
Click to expand...
I've never heard anybody say that catskill flies are tied 1 1/2 to 2 hook gaps. I was taught = to the hook gap. I will tie certain flies with longer hackle, like my royal wulffs always are heavy on hackle. Keep tying them with the short hackle because that's the way they're supposed to be..
Click to expand...

I was taught in my fly tying class - 30 years ago now - that the hackle should be 1.5 to 2 times the hook gap.
And most patterns that I've seen in fly shops over the years, seem to be tied to those proportions
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:
With all due respect for the fans of Catskill style dries, they're actually the worst of the three (cd,parachute,catskill) to immitate the duns.

Reason? The traditional Catskill style flies are tied with a big "clump" of tail fibers. This actually makes the body of the fly appear larger than it really is.

For skittering, yeah the Catskill style is a bit better, but in my experience, just a couple of twitches does the job when the fish are looking for that movement.

Given a choice, I'd take a well tied (key!) comparadun over a parachute, and lastly a traditional Catskill style pattern. What bug I'm immitating plays a big role in that decision as well. I carry all three styles, and let the fish decide. It's a rare day when the comparadun doesn't win out. It's tough to beat a heavily hackled catskill style fly in rough water though.

Durability is also important to me. Fish teeth and hackle don't play well together. I've got comparaduns in my boxes that have caught dozens of fish. My record is 68 fish on a sulphur comparadun (not all on the same day) before it fell apart.

Fox's and my mentor taught us how to tie comparaduns so they last. I've witnessed Fox catching a crazy amount of fish on the same fly. Fox ties one mean comparadun!
Click to expand...


I also dislike clump tail fibers.
I tie all of my "catskill" flies with divided microfibbett tails.
They support the fly better, and look nicer IMO
 
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