Hatches 2011: Parafoam Dry Flies by Alex Cerveniak
Magazine — By HatchesMagazine on October 20, 2011 10:44 am
The dry fly has been evolving for more than 100 years. It started in England, crossed the Atlantic, and then took the world by storm in the Catskills. Despite the fact that the Catskill-style dry flies are still widely used today, Catskill patterns are plagued by issues that fly tiers have been trying to overcome since the style first emerged.
Catskill-style dries are highmaintenance. They require frequent applications of floatant to keep them from sinking, even on slow moving streams. When properly tied, they ride unnaturally high on the water’s surface. You can trim an upside-down “V” from the bottom of the hackle to sidestep the problem, but that only causes a fly to sink faster than its already unacceptable rate.
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS Feed
3 Comments
Alex: then, don’t fish them! Catskill dries are beautiful, I’don’t mind tying them & I sure enjoy the fish they catch.
Alex,
Frankly l do not agree with your remarks so far as high maintenance Catskill dries.
There are many reasons why l say this, way more than the space offered here to reply, other than l will state this.
In the days when these flies were commonly used and for that matter the dry fly patterns that evolved in my homelands (UK ) they were fished with very different tackle set ups than used today, in other words they were not subject to rigors of continuous
of high speed casting, which is not possible with bamboo, further they were attached to gut and not nylon filament.
Further fly fishers in those days as a rule fished mainly only to rising fish and not as common practice to day the water 6 to 8 hrs a day.
If there is any one significant advantage it is the modern floating agents we have, way superior to the oils of yesterday.
A well tied hackled dry with use of a fine wire hook well dressed will float all day.
It is still my opinion that natural hackle offers significant advantages over many of the now used synthetics which do not convey the elements of light transmission of color that hackle will do, which is a definite trigger factor to the trouts eye.
Further, the vast majority of fly tyers today do not know how to tie hackled dries, they are not on their agenda.
All l will add further is this, If you know how to tie the flies and which flies to use you will catch a great many fish that other fly patterns may not.
If there is any significant advance it is the use of deer and elk hair, mainly pioneered by Al Troth.
CDC and foam may have some use but not for all.
Davy Wotton.
this seems to be a very useful pattern and no doubt will stand upto many sharp teethmwith the “SHOAL” of fish it is going to be held in between these teeth.