Hackle Stacker or Parachute?

[Deuterium]

Starting to plan my cold weather tying. Thoughts on Hackle Stacker versus Parachute style flies? Interchangeable? Advantages of one or the other?

 

[Swattie87]

The HS will ride lower in the water, and generally be better in calmer, flatter water…similar to a comparadun. It will probably have an advantage in emerger situations, though parachutes work reasonably well here too.

The parachute is the middle of the road, jack of all trades pattern. Does reasonably well in calm water or for emergers, but also floats reasonably well in heavier water, certainly better than the HS will.

On the other end of the spectrum, Catskill or Wulff style patterns will float the best and are easier to fish in heavy water, but are generally less accurate representations of what the fish see from underneath. Hence refusals or them being ignored altogether in calmer, flatter water. Since they ride so high on the hackle, they don’t represent emergers well either.

Bottom line, a time and a place for each depending on what the conditions dictate.

 

[Deuterium]

Thanks, Swattie.

 

[fisherboy3]

I use both, mostly for the same situations. Ill use a hackle stacker and parachute for both duns and spinners. They both work equally well for me. Parachute is way better when the light is thinning in the evening. But a hackle stacker works great as a spinner when tied with grizzly hackle, rides low in the water like a spinner.

 

[SteveG]

Hmm, I'd say it depends on what I was trying to imitate. For a dun I'd go with a parachute, cdc mayfly, or comparadun. It it was a little earlier (and riding lower) I prefer more of an emerger type tie with a shuck, or a greased soft hackle.

I never really liked hackle stackers personally, preferring cdc. But, a parachute Adams is a fantastic fly if you want to "search".

 

[JeffK]

A lot of the choice is what you like to tie. Both catch fish. To me the choice is whether I feel like tying in a post or messing with the loop for the stacker. My choice varies with my mood more than effectiveness.

One plus for a parachute is that the post can be a color that is easy for my aging eyes to see. Bright for the day; sometimes a black post is better to see at night. A little microflash can make it pop in some low light conditions

 

[Deuterium]

Thanks. I think I’ll start with some parachutes.

 

[afishinado]

Deuterium wrote:
Thanks. I think I’ll start with some parachutes.

I tie and fish a lot of parachute flies. They are visible on the water, float well, and can be used to imitate emergers (shorten the post), duns, as well as spinners.

But for larger flies, maybe size 16 or larger, you may want to consider tying compara duns and/or sparkle duns. They are relatively easy to tie, durable, float well, and are effective hatch-matchers and fish-catchers. Best of all, tying them does not require buying fancy/expensive dry fly hackle.

Have fun at the vise.

 

[JeffK]

One late spring (once lighter flies came out) I restricted myself to two dry flies: a 14 parachute light Cahill and a 16 tan sparkle dun. I have since gone to using more flies for the fun of experimenting and using old favorites. However, I think I caught just as many fish in my two fly period. BTW, I think a tan sparkle dun works OK for tan caddis as well as light mayflies.

I have two more staple dry flies: a wound grizzly hackle rusty spinner and a Ken Tutalo's Knock Down Dun tied with snowshoe hare instead of CDC.

 

[Deuterium]

afishinado wrote:

Deuterium wrote:
Thanks. I think I’ll start with some parachutes.

I tie and fish a lot of parachute flies. They are visible on the water, float well, and can be used to imitate emergers (shorten the post), duns, as well as spinners.

But for larger flies, maybe size 16 or larger, you may want to consider tying compara duns and/or sparkle duns. They are relatively easy to tie, durable, float well, and are effective hatch-matchers and fish-catchers. Best of all, tying them does not require buying fancy/expensive dry fly hackle.

Have fun at the vise.

I will definitely tye some sparkle duns.

 

[John96]

I prefer parachutes, but catch fish on both types. I find hackle stackers hard to see on the water and I also have more confidence in a parachute style fly.