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Parachute BWO
A dry fly, tied #16–22, carried year round. It is tied against 2 named insects in this book — March–June and September–November.
An olive-bodied mayfly dun with the hackle wound flat around a post, tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 16 through 22 with olive 8/0 thread. The tail is blue dun hackle fibres, the body olive superfine dubbing, the wing post white or grey poly yarn, and the hackle is blue dun wound parachute style. The parachute wrap settles the body into the surface while the post stays visible against grey water, which matters at these sizes. It is tied against the Blue-Winged Olive, Baetis spp., on the water March through May and September through November in temperatures from 38 to 58 degrees. Those are the cold, drizzling, overcast days at either end of the season, and the worse the weather the heavier the emergence tends to be. It is carried through the year and fished for trout during the hatch, drifted dead over rising fish.
- #16–22Hook size
- dry flyType
- AllSeason
- 2Hatches 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.
- Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. · March–May and September–November · 38–58°F · #16–22
- Large Blue-Winged Olive Drunella cornuta · May–June · 50–64°F · #14–16
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 16–22 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Olive 8/0 |
| Tail | Blue dun hackle fibres |
| Body | Olive superfine dubbing |
| Wing post | White or grey poly yarn |
| Hackle | Blue dun, parachute |
When to fish it
Grey, drizzling days, spring and autumn. The colder and worse the weather the better it fishes.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active march–june and september–november, in water from 38°F to 64°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
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°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.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.
- Adult Cranefly dry fly · #10–16 — Long trailing legs, sparse hackle, skittered rather than drifted. Autumn and spring evenings on the bank side.
- Blue Quill dry fly · #16–18 — Small dark mayfly dun. Spring Blue Quills and fall Mahoganies are the same fly.
- CDC Caddis dry fly · #14–20 — Lower in the film than an Elk Hair. For flat water and educated fish.