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Hex Dun
A dry fly, tied #6–8, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — June–July.
A big pale dry fly tied on a 3X long dry-fly hook in sizes 6–8, this one is built to sit high and be heard rather than seen. The body is pale yellow deer hair, spun and clipped, or yellow foam in place of it; the tail is moose body hair, the wing natural deer hair set upright, or calf tail, and the hackle is ginger and wound heavy. Yellow 6/0 thread holds it together. It is tied against the Hex, Hexagenia limbata, a mayfly that comes off in June and July in water between 60 and 72 degrees, and trout are the fish it is meant for. The fishing happens in full dark in late June over sand-bottomed water, which is why the size 6 in pale yellow deer hair matters less than the ear does: the cast goes to the sound, then a count, then the lift.
- #6–8Hook size
- dry flyType
- SummerSeason
- 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 | 3X long dry-fly hook, sizes 6–8 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Yellow 6/0 |
| Tail | Moose body hair |
| Body | Pale yellow deer hair, spun and clipped, or yellow foam |
| Wing | Natural deer hair, upright, or calf tail |
| Hackle | Ginger, heavy |
When to fish it
Full dark, late June, on sand-bottomed rivers. Fished by ear: cast to the sound, count, then lift.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active june–july, in water from 60°F to 72°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
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Abitosse Creek the Upper Peninsula · July mean 72.0°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
- Adventure Creek the Upper Peninsula
- Aho Creek the Upper Peninsula · July mean 70.7°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Hex Spinner dry fly · #6–8 — The spent fall, later in the night than the dun and often better.
- Chubby Chernobyl dry fly · #8–14 — Foam attractor and indicator in one. Hopper-dropper season starts here.
- Coffin Fly dry fly · #8–12 — The Green Drake spinner. Fished at last light and after.
- Green Drake dry fly · #8–12 — The two-week Appalachian event. Size 10 and hard to miss.
- October Caddis dry fly · #8–10 — Big orange caddis for the last warm afternoons of the year.