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Green Drake
A dry fly, tied #8–12, a spring pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — May–June.
A large dry tied to match Ephemera guttulata, an insect big enough that the fly is hard to miss on the water and a sloppy drift still gets eaten. It goes on a 2X long dry-fly hook in sizes 8–12 with olive 6/0 thread: moose body hair for the tail, a pale olive-cream dubbed body ribbed with olive thread, a wing of dark deer hair or a grey poly post, and grizzly hackle dyed olive to carry the weight of the hook. Size 10 is the heart of the range. The hatch runs May into June, in water of 52 to 64 degrees, and in the mountains it amounts to only a few days in late May and June — a short, concentrated event rather than a season, which is why the pattern is carried in spring and put away afterward. Nothing else is tied against this fly; it matches one insect. Trout are the target species.
- #8–12Hook size
- dry flyType
- SpringSeason
- 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.
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 | 2X long dry-fly hook, sizes 8–12 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Olive 6/0 |
| Tail | Moose body hair |
| Body | Pale olive-cream dubbing, ribbed olive thread |
| Wing | Dark deer hair or grey poly post |
| Hackle | Grizzly dyed olive |
When to fish it
A few days in late May and June in the mountains. Big enough that a sloppy drift still gets eaten.
A spring pattern. The insects it matches are active may–june, in water from 52°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.
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°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
- Abb Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Abes Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 71.1°F
- Abram Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 57.7°F
- Acorn Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 74.2°F
- Adamcamp Branch the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Coffin Fly dry fly · #8–12 — The Green Drake spinner. Fished at last light and after.
- Stimulator dry fly · #8–16 — Attractor and stonefly both. Floats a dropper better than almost anything.
- 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.
- Adult Damsel dry fly · #10–14 — Blue or olive extended body on a foam post. For midsummer afternoons on slow weedy water.