The Joy of Fly Tying: Parachute Mayfly

I always conclude my Joy of Fly Tying classes with the same fly: a Parachute dry fly. I have tied thousands, if not trillions, of parachute flies in my lifetime, so I find them to be quite easy. But most beginners find them to be quite difficult, so I keep the hardest fly until the end. If they can tie a passable parachute fly they can pass the class. Even if they can't tie a passable parachute fly they can pass the class, but that's beside the point.

Parachute Adams

I wrote about my technique for tying parachute hackle in the Spring '17 issue of Fly Tyer magazine in an article titled "Highly Adequate Parachute Flies", and my technique really is highly adequate. It produces really good looking parachute hackle 98% of the time, and the 2% of hackles that turn out badly are almost always caused by user error. I'm not going to say that the hackle always looks perfect, but if you were to say that, I wouldn't audibly argue with you.

The parachute Sulphur I tie in the video

The secret to my parachute tying technique is to always tie the feather in the same way, meaning the curve of the feather is always facing the same way, the thread is always in the same place, and the hackle is always wound the same way. Once you get the hang of it it's easy. Let's see if I can make it easy for you through the magic of video...

Parachute Pattern Recipe

Hook: Any standard dry fly hook, size 8-28
Thread: 8/0 to match the body color
Tail: Dun or ginger Mayfly Tails
Wing: Antron or poly yarn
Hackle: Dun, grizzly, ginger or any other color, sized appropriately to the hook
Body: Superfine or other dry fly dubbing, whatever color you prefer