First tied by Lee Wulff in 1951, this fly has proved to be an extremely affective fly for Atlantic Salmon. It has gone through some changes since that time. Wulff’s original flies were made from molded plastic, a process he had patented. Not to be daunted by such silly things as a patent, inventive fly tiers devised other methods of creating this fly for there fishing. The one listed below is one of the more popular methods of making this fly, but by no means the only.
Hook: Low water single or double.
Tag: flat silver tinsel
Body: bright green floss
Wing: black bear tied flat across the body
Post: Bent strait pin
Hackle: Silver badger
Tying this fly is not difficult, however, there are some things you need to pay attention to make it come out good. The first item is the post for the parachute hackle. This is most commonly made from a strait pin with a yellow bead head although there are other methods. With a pair of needle nose pliers bend the pin at a 90 degree angle about an 8th of an inch from the bead head of the pin. Then use a pair of dikes to cut off about half the remainder of the pin. Use a stone or file to grind down the sharp edges on the end of the pin so they do not cut your thread when you tie it to the hook.
Put a hook in the vise, start the thread, (since the body will be bright green I am using white thread to keep the color from bleeding through) and tie in the silver tag.
Wrap the hackles around the Pin and tie them off. Another good tip to use when tying parachute hackles is to make each wrap of the hackle under the proceeding one. You will find that they look much neater than if you wrapped them randomly up and down the post.
That's a very clear and concise description, I'd wondered how to tie this fly and now I know.
The way people feel about this fly on the Gaspe clearly convinces me of it's effectiveness.
The technique also opens up possibilities and invokes many thoughts about flies for other fisheries where I have been meaning to create certain effects whether for bonefishing, trout or warmwater.
GREAT pics and description of tying, pretty much textbook.
I like to tie the fly with a white foam post for the parachute to be wrapped on rather than the pin. This makes it somewhat lighter, which may or may not be good depending on how you are fishing it.
Another way to tie this or other parachute flies in by using the hackle stem(s) as the hackle post. To do this: 1) strip the web from the butt of the hackle (don't cut or break off these bare stems); 2) tie in the hackle so there is only a very short section of stem before the hackle fibers begin; 3) stand the hackle butt up with a few wraps of thread at its base; 4) wrap the hackle around its own stems; 5) tie the hackle off; and 6) put a drop of flexible cement (such as Flexament) on the stems about the wrapped hackle, this locks the hackle in place). Then all you do is cut off the hackle stems slightly above where the hackle is wrapped.
This technique allows you to tie parachute flies with woodduck flank wings, mallard flank wings, teal flank wings, or duck or goose quill wings. Heck it even work very well to tie a wingless mayfly spinner imitation. I'll have to get my wife to take pictures of me doing it and then post a step-by-step of the technique in the next week or so.
Please accept my belated thanks for this post. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to review it until today. My best intentions notwithstanding, I did not tie any of these flies for the trip we took to the Miramichi last week (a report on which will be posted later today or tomorrow).
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