Grey Duster

Small mouth - small flies!

| Jassid | Grey Duster | Two flies in the act of sex |

Later my friend and I ran into problems on our favorite stream, when the tiny Caënis dayflies hatched. The trout sipped the fresh emerged flies all over the water - but they rejected all the flies we offered. Then we found a note in a magazine saying, that the fly with the peculiar name - the 'Grey Duster' - should be the right medicine, if it was tied with a parachute hackle.

At home I found a way to tie a parachute fly without using hooks special made for this purpose - and then we really had success - and it continued even after the time, when the Caënis hatches were over.

Hook	Partridge L4A - Capt. Hamilton Feather weight or similar light hook.
Thread	Pearsall’s Gossamer no. 17 - brown.
Body	A dubbing of light rabbit’s fur.
Hackle	Badger cock tied parachute.

One can make the loop around which the hackle is turned in many ways - I used the stem of the hackle to make the loop - on the drawings you can see how:

I fasten the silk behind the eye - tie the badger hackle, where the fibres are removed over a sufficient part of the stem, down on top of the hook - with the ‘good side’ turned up. Bend the stalk up and place one tight turn of thread close behind it, Then bend the stalk down on the frontside of the hook and bind it down with two turns of the thread, so that the stalk points direct down.

Wind the thread to the bend - dub it with rabbit’s fur and turn it up to the loop.

Then I turn the hackle around the loop in the horizontal plan - one turn under the preceeding one, and after 3-4 turns put the point of the hackle through the loop, and then tighten it up drawing down in the end of the stalk.

Finally the stalk is bend up in front over the neck of the hook and tied down with a whip-finish. On top of the remaining loop is placed a tiny drop of lacquer and surplus hackle cut away.

More small flies >>>

© Preben Torp Jacobsen. 'Flyleaves', 1996.

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