Parachute Adams

Parachute Adams by Jason Akl
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The Parachute Adams is a legendary fish catcher that no serious fly angler should ever be without. There are a great many attributes to the Parachute Adams but most of its legendary status is due to its unique ability to imitate the numerous members of the mayfly and caddis families. If no hatches are present on the water the Parachute Adams can be equally successful as a searching pattern.

The Parachute Adams can be productive wherever you decide to drift it. Slow or slack water presentation is one of the Adams’ specialties. The unique parachute post design allows the fly to ride lower in the surface film creating a realistic silhouette to on-looking trout. In these slow water conditions trout have an extended time to examine flies drifted overhead so using flies that more closely resemble the natural insects, like the Parachute Adams, gives you the best chance to consistently catch fish. For the faster runs or riffles the horizontal hackle will allow the fly to not only ride lower but have better floatability keeping it high and dry longer than most other standard dries.

To fish the Parachute Adams, simply employ the same tactics you would for any other standard dry fly. Find a turbulent run or sunken structure and cast across and upstream of this target. Gently allow the fly to drop to the waters surface and proceed to drift downstream. On the drift downstream towards your target or for the duration of the run mend the fly line so that the fly achieves a drag free drift for as long as possible. A good idea is to swing the fly back towards a position behind at the end of the drift just to give any slow trailing fish a last chance to bite.

Fly anglers the world over have tested this fly and time and time again come to one conclusion, the Parachute Adams simply catches fish.
Materials Used in the Parachute Adams

Hook: Daiichi Dry Fly Hook Size 14
Thread: Black Uni-Thread Size 8/0
Body: Grey Dry Fly Dubbing
Hackle: Grizzly Hackle
Post: White Calf Tail
Tail: Mix of Furnace and Grizzly Hackle Fibers

Tying Steps

1. Start this fly by placing your hook into the vice and securing it place tightly. Attach the thread you will be using behind the hook eye and clip off the excess tag end.

2. Select and place a small bunch of calf tail fibers into your hair stacker. With a few light taps align the tips if the calf tail fibers and remove them from the stacker. Just in front of the ¼ on the hook shank tie in the calf tail extending over the hook eye. Make sure that the fibers of hair do not rotate around the hook shank, but rather sit as one group on the top side of the hook shank. The length for the post should be approximately the same as the hook gap so make sure to take a few measurements before you tie it in.

3. Clip several long hackle fibers from a grizzly hackle and align the tips with your hair stacker. Tie in these hackle fibers as the tail for the fly making sure to keep all the fibers again on top of the hook shank. Repeat this process with the furnace hackle fibers so that you end up with a tail that is furnace hackle fibers over grizzly hackle fibers.

4. Once the tail is secured in place pinch dub the thread with the muskrat dubbing. Wrap a nice even tapered body up the hook shank until you reach the back of the post. With your left hand (or right hand if you are a left handed tier) grab and pull the white calf tail post backwards. While the post is lifted into position make several thread wraps in front of the post and around the base of the post to hold it into an upright position. Strip the end of a grizzly hackle and wrap it down with thread to the base of the post.

5. Wrap the grizzly hackle onto the base of the post creating a horizontal hackle and tie off the remaining tag end of grizzly hackle at the front base of the post. Continue dubbing the body till you reach the back of the hook eye and then whip finish and cement the thread.

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