Hackle on Parachute Flies

[Jimr1961 0]

Hi All,

when in a pinch, can you get away with oversized hackle on a parachute fly? Oversized meaning the hackle extends all the way to the end of the tail rather than to the end of the body.

[Piker20 0]

If the fish have taught me anything its that they don't read the books! The fly isn't going to win you a tying comp or attract jealous glances from your fellow fishers, BUT I've caught fish on some right abominations and on the day the fish may or may not care that the hackle is a bit longer. The main effect will be the side profile from below as the fly will sit on the surface and provide a wider profile or 'footprint'. But then a size 16 hook with larger hackle will probably be same as #10 hook with appropriate hackle. So if you need a fly and thats what you have then I say go for it. You can always trim the hackle back a little if you don't impress the fish and think thats the reason.

Always let the fish be the harshest critic.

[kentuckytroutbum 0]

Piker-

 

I couldn't agree with you more. I've caught some nice fish on butt ugly flies that I tied. But as you said the fish don't mind.

I tie my flies with oversized hackle, wings, etc. My logic is that I can trim the fly with scissors or razor blades to even up the fly, and make it look pretty to get the proportions correct.

 

Bill

[perchjerker 0]

I second what has already been said. Just remember; the fish do NOT read our books!

 

Cheers!

[Jimr1961 0]

That was my thinking as well. I thought, while hackle size is imperative for properly floating the fly on the surface, a parachute may be more forgiving on a slight oversize. Maybe not an undersize, but that's never my problem. I'm currently out of hackle of a certain color for size 14 and smaller, so I tied on a natural rooster neck appropriate for a size 10 and a grizzly of size 12. It looked o.k., but obviously, a little long. It's a parachute adams.

[Piker20 0]

Let us know what the fish think. Tight lines

[SilverCreek 0]

Hi All,

when in a pinch, can you get away with oversized hackle on a parachute fly? Oversized meaning the hackle extends all the way to the end of the tail rather than to the end of the body.

 

My answer would depend on where you are fishing. Generally, the hackle for a parachute is one size larger than the hook gap. For example, use a size 14 hackle for a size 16 parachute. Using a larger hackle or cutting down the hackle will work on some fish, but I know of fisheries where most of the fish would ignore the fly.

 

Fish may not read books, but some fish populations have been culled and trained to ignore anything less than a perfect presentation with a near perfect fly. Fish populations are not uniform. As populations, they form a bell curve in how they react to a fly. Some of the fish will be more susceptible than others. Most of the time these are the smaller fish.

 

In some fisheries, the entire population is more difficult to catch than in another fishery. If difficulty was graded on a graph as the X axis and number of fish the Y axis, a shift to the right as in the graph blow would indicate a more difficult (pink) fishery.

 

 

As the population becomes more uniform, the bell curve tightens as in the Pink vs Blue bell curve below.

 

 

I'm not saying that all fisheries evolve to fit a perfect bell curve, but the theory of population dynamics in behavior fits well with what actually occurs in practice. So whether larger or clipped hackle will work doesn't depend on whether fish can read, but on how hard they have been fished and the nature of the fishery (spring creek vs freestone).

[Jimr1961 0]

Bell curves, a fisher after my own heart

 

They may not read, but the learn what food bites back

 

I'll probably use it for the first time on Hot Creek in the Owens Valley, CA. in early fall. We'll see if it entices or lip-locks 'em.

[Piker20 0]

I agree that association matters but a fly that falls right outside the box has as much chance as the one bang centre. Its the fly just off that struggles through association IMO.

 

An interesting study was done on fish and their ability to learn, they electrified a portion of a tank and carp learnt to avoid the electric bit. The Rainbow trout in the test also learnt but on average it was something like 4x the time it took carp to learn. What that means to fishing I'm not sure, I've caught fish with the hook in them I just lost. I've also lost a fish that killed the whole swim for a day. Its the contrary nature that makes it fishing not catching.

[mvendon 0]

Hi Jimr1961,

 

Here's what one brown that I caught earlier this summer thought of over sized hackled parachute patterns. He wasn't the only one that liked it either, but this is a pretty good pic of the fly in it's mouth. The only problem that I've noticed on larger sizes is that after fishing them for a while, the front part of the hackle barbs sometimes start to migrate back after they're wet, and there's a big gap on both sides of the eye. I wrap a couple more wraps of hackle now on the larger sizes to help compensate for this.

 

Regards,

Mark