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Adams (Catskill)
A dry fly, tied #12–20, carried year round. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — June–July. Leonard Halladay, Mayfield, Michigan, 1922 — tied for the Boardman River.
A grey mayfly dry tied Catskill style, the Adams is dressed on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 12 through 20 with grey 8/0 thread. The tail is mixed brown and grizzly hackle fibres, the body grey muskrat dubbing, the wings grizzly hen hackle tips set upright and divided, and the hackle is brown and grizzly mixed in a collar. That collar is the whole argument for the dressing: it rides high on its hackle points, which is what broken pocket water and a fast riffle ask for, and where a parachute drowns. It is tied against the Gray Drake, Siphlonurus spp., a mayfly of June and July in water between 55 and 68 degrees, and it stands in for mayflies generally. It is also a searching pattern, carried in every season and fished for trout when nothing on the water suggests anything more particular. The dressing is Leonard Halladay's, from 1922.
- #12–20Hook size
- dry flyType
- AllSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
It is also tagged for mayflies generally, no hatch at all — a searching pattern.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades; Leonard Halladay, Mayfield, Michigan, 1922 — tied for the Boardman River. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 12–20 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Grey 8/0 |
| Tail | Mixed brown and grizzly hackle fibres |
| Body | Grey muskrat dubbing |
| Wings | Grizzly hen hackle tips, upright and divided |
| Hackle | Brown and grizzly mixed, collar style |
When to fish it
The original, tied Catskill style. It rides high on its hackle points, which is what you want in broken pocket water and on a fast riffle where a parachute drowns.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active june–july, in water from 55°F to 68°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Acme Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 67.1°F
- Adams Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 67.1°F
- Adams Creek northern Wisconsin · July mean 66.2°F
- Addis Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.9°F
- Alabaster Whitney Drain northern lower Michigan · July mean 75.5°F
- Albrechts Creek northern Wisconsin
- Alder Creek northern Wisconsin · July mean 69.8°F
- Alder Creek northern Wisconsin · July mean 65.8°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.
- Purple Haze dry fly · #12–18 — A Parachute Adams in purple. Fish it when the honest match keeps getting refused.
- Chubby Chernobyl dry fly · #8–14 — Foam attractor and indicator in one. Hopper-dropper season starts here.
- Elk Hair Caddis dry fly · #12–20 — Floats forever, skates on command, works when nothing is hatching.
- Gray Drake Spinner dry fly · #10–12 — The Gray Drake is only fishable as a spinner. Evening, over flats.