September Dry Fly Fishing, The Comparadun Revisited And An Update
"Do you need a 50-fish day dredging the depths with three jig-head nymphs drifting under an indicator? Or will half a dozen trout rising to dry flies prove equally fulfilling? - John Shewey, Editor In Chief of Fly Fishing Magazine, September/October 2016 edition
It seems that there is some "conventional wisdom" being cast upon the waters that dry fly fishing, outside of #28,#30 and #32 midge fishing, is at some kind of low spot during September here in New England. This is a half baked idea that doesn't stand up to even casual scrutiny. For starters let's look at what UPCOUNTRY FLY SHOP, (Farmington experts) suggest for a late summer, early fall dry fly selection:Tan Caddis 16-18, Light Cahills 12-14, White Flies (good on the Housy too) - 12-14, Ants #20 and Blue Wing Olives 20-24.
These are not midges. These are the flies that hatch throughout New England (fewer white flies, very many BWO's) and give September the reputation of being, next to June, as the BEST dry fly month of the year. And let's not forget the terrestrials because September is the best month for them. Grasshoppers, crickets and ants rule the month. Take a walk up the railroad tracks to the Upper Trestle Pool on the Millers any day during September. You will see hundreds of grasshoppers in that short walk fleeing your approach. In June you could sit on your back deck in the evening and the landscape would be fairly quiet. Now it's September and you will hear a million crickets. I've had my best ant action in September when ant colonies split up, sprout wings and end up landing in trout streams.Terrestrials mean surface action!! It happens in September!!
The Blue Wing Olive is the MAJOR hatch of the Autumn and the Millers is a great place to see wonderful surface action to these insects. My best dry fly day was in early October on the EB and it was to the BWO. The Millers still has Cahills in September and that is a size 14 fly. The Pumpkin Caddis drifts in WAVES over the Millers in late September and it is best represented by a size 12 or 14 imitation. I still see Cream Cahills on the Swift in September. Never a populated hatch it continues from late May into September and the trout like them. I remember casting size 14-16 Light Cahills on warm September days years ago on the Squannacook when it seemed that every trout in the river was rising to SOME fly that my limited entomology failed to recognize. The Cahill matched what the trout wanted. They were not after midges.
In short, carry midges because you may need them but don't start dredging the depths because you think that dry flies with "meat on them" are through for the year.
COMPARADUNS - It's my favorite dry fly pattern and I have now tied most of my standard dries(including BWO's) this way for 35 years while giving up on the standard hackle patterns. Why's that? It's because it puts the body (the most important part) down in the film while hackle patterns really do not. And most rising trout are going after the insect caught in the surface film and not the dainty little sailboat floating downstream. Look at the comparadun photo above and you will see a small ball of dubbing in front of the deer hair. It's used to anchor that hair in place. I'm still surprised how many of these flies don't incorporate it. What about the Parachute?? I love to tie them because they look so nice and the body is in the film BUT caparaduns are easier to tie and are more durable. Dubbing and deer hair and that's it. What about the small sizes? Ultra fine deer hair works to about #18 then go to poly yarn or even better CDC. Kill the tail, use a curved light wire scud hook and you REALLY have a great emerger pattern.
Another BWO pattern that I like in #18 and #20 is nothing more the a wispy tail, olive dubbing and two turns of green dyed grizzly hackle (shown above). The green dye comes out a nice shade of dark olive on a grizzly hackle and it's mottled too. It's a dun or a spinner. I have to do something with all those hackle capes!!!
This year was supposed to be a big year for Atlantic tropical storms but so far it's been a bust. We need the rain for our freestones and we need it in September.
Ken
It seems that there is some "conventional wisdom" being cast upon the waters that dry fly fishing, outside of #28,#30 and #32 midge fishing, is at some kind of low spot during September here in New England. This is a half baked idea that doesn't stand up to even casual scrutiny. For starters let's look at what UPCOUNTRY FLY SHOP, (Farmington experts) suggest for a late summer, early fall dry fly selection:Tan Caddis 16-18, Light Cahills 12-14, White Flies (good on the Housy too) - 12-14, Ants #20 and Blue Wing Olives 20-24.
These are not midges. These are the flies that hatch throughout New England (fewer white flies, very many BWO's) and give September the reputation of being, next to June, as the BEST dry fly month of the year. And let's not forget the terrestrials because September is the best month for them. Grasshoppers, crickets and ants rule the month. Take a walk up the railroad tracks to the Upper Trestle Pool on the Millers any day during September. You will see hundreds of grasshoppers in that short walk fleeing your approach. In June you could sit on your back deck in the evening and the landscape would be fairly quiet. Now it's September and you will hear a million crickets. I've had my best ant action in September when ant colonies split up, sprout wings and end up landing in trout streams.Terrestrials mean surface action!! It happens in September!!
The Blue Wing Olive is the MAJOR hatch of the Autumn and the Millers is a great place to see wonderful surface action to these insects. My best dry fly day was in early October on the EB and it was to the BWO. The Millers still has Cahills in September and that is a size 14 fly. The Pumpkin Caddis drifts in WAVES over the Millers in late September and it is best represented by a size 12 or 14 imitation. I still see Cream Cahills on the Swift in September. Never a populated hatch it continues from late May into September and the trout like them. I remember casting size 14-16 Light Cahills on warm September days years ago on the Squannacook when it seemed that every trout in the river was rising to SOME fly that my limited entomology failed to recognize. The Cahill matched what the trout wanted. They were not after midges.
In short, carry midges because you may need them but don't start dredging the depths because you think that dry flies with "meat on them" are through for the year.
COMPARADUNS - It's my favorite dry fly pattern and I have now tied most of my standard dries(including BWO's) this way for 35 years while giving up on the standard hackle patterns. Why's that? It's because it puts the body (the most important part) down in the film while hackle patterns really do not. And most rising trout are going after the insect caught in the surface film and not the dainty little sailboat floating downstream. Look at the comparadun photo above and you will see a small ball of dubbing in front of the deer hair. It's used to anchor that hair in place. I'm still surprised how many of these flies don't incorporate it. What about the Parachute?? I love to tie them because they look so nice and the body is in the film BUT caparaduns are easier to tie and are more durable. Dubbing and deer hair and that's it. What about the small sizes? Ultra fine deer hair works to about #18 then go to poly yarn or even better CDC. Kill the tail, use a curved light wire scud hook and you REALLY have a great emerger pattern.
Another BWO pattern that I like in #18 and #20 is nothing more the a wispy tail, olive dubbing and two turns of green dyed grizzly hackle (shown above). The green dye comes out a nice shade of dark olive on a grizzly hackle and it's mottled too. It's a dun or a spinner. I have to do something with all those hackle capes!!!
This year was supposed to be a big year for Atlantic tropical storms but so far it's been a bust. We need the rain for our freestones and we need it in September.
Ken
7 comments:
I always trim off the bottom hackles of my dries which allows the fly to sit low in the water. This is somewhat the same as a Comparadun while giving it stability to stay upright and mimicking the usual legs of a fly. Go sparse with the hackle.
With the low water, even on the tailgaters, it should be a fabulous Dry Fly September. Bring on the ants and Olives!
Anonymous 4:17,
You mean tailwaters I think. I fear the freestones might not get any fish this October. That happened to the EB and the Squannie a few years back (low water).
Ken
Anonymous, 9/3/10::27,
There was a tackle company years ago that always said that you should trim the hackles on the bottom because their hackles were s--t and by trimming the hackles they became stiffer. (the company was Herters) Go hackle-less except for the BIG dries.
Ken
Dear Ken,
I agree that both Comparaduns and parachutes have many virtues: both pattern styles are simple to tie, imitate mayfly emergers/duns/spinners reasonably well, and are admirably durable. However, parachutes offer superior flotation compared to Comparaduns and their derivatives.
A parachute's circle of wrapped hackle provides more fibers distributed over more surface area than does the linear edge of a Comparadun wing. Put another way, all parachute hackle fibers contribute to flotation, whereas most fibers in a Comparadun wing do not; this difference is magnified when synthetics substitute for the deer-hair Comparadun wing in smaller sizes.
If tied with synthetic dubbing and pre-treated with NuFly-Kote or Loon HydroStop or Water Shed, a parachute dries with the flick of a false-cast and will float for hours. A similarly-tied and treated Comparadun requires more resuscitation.
All that said, I tie and fish both pattern styles, and carry a healthy selection of Comparaduns at all times; both parachutes and Comparaduns are essential components of the dry-fly box.
-Mike
Mike,
I've never had problems floating a comparadun even after many fish and the floating properties of deer hair are superior to rooster feathers any day. I go through starts and stops with parachutes and that may be because I don't really like the 360 degree pattern of hackle fibers radiating out of the fly's thorax. Kind of unnatural I'd say but parachutes are fun to tie and gives me the chance to use all those Grade A hackles I used to buy.
Ken
Too much floatation can often limit the effectiveness of dry flies. High floaters are easy for the angler to see, but hard for the fish to spot given the mirrored surface of the water outside of a limited window. Getting most of the fly down through the film makes it more visible to the fish, and more appealing since it appears like a vulnerable emerger, not an adult about to escape. Comparaduns and parachutes lend themselves to breaking through the film, hence their effectiveness, but keeping the fly damp (floatant applied only to the wing, not too much false casting, etc.) can be as important as the design. Catskill style flies catch plenty of fish, in spite of their flawed design, and using a softer hackle (cheaper, "lower quality") can help get the fly down through the film, instead of floating on the hackle tips as designed (they never really float as designed anyway given the weight of the hook, etc.).
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