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Leadwing Coachman
A wet fly, tied #10–14, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — June–September.
A wet fly tied on a wet-fly hook in sizes 10–14 with black 8/0 thread: peacock herl body ribbed with fine gold, soft brown hen hackle swept back along it, and grey mallard quill slips laid over the body as a wing. It is the wet-fly answer to Isonychia, tied against the Isonychia or Slate Drake, Isonychia bicolor, a mayfly out from June through September in water between 55 and 70 degrees, and it also covers mayflies generally and no hatch at all — a searching pattern as much as a hatch match. Trout are the quarry. It is swung on a tight line on summer evenings in fast water, which is exactly where the naturals crawl out, so the fly is moving through the same seams the emergence uses. Carried through summer, and the soft hackle and mobile wing give it life on the swing whether or not anything is showing.
- #10–14Hook size
- wet 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.
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 — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Wet-fly hook, sizes 10–14 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 8/0 |
| Body | Peacock herl, ribbed fine gold |
| Hackle | Brown hen, soft, swept back |
| Wing | Grey mallard quill slips, over the body |
When to fish it
The classic Isonychia wet. Swung on summer evenings on fast water, which is exactly where the naturals crawl out.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active june–september, in water from 55°F to 70°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.
- Partridge & Orange Soft Hackle wet fly · #12–18 — Swung down and across. The simplest fly here and among the most effective.
- Alder Fly wet fly · #10–14 — Dark peacock body, mottled hen wing. An old British wet fly that happens to match Sialis exactly.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.
- Zug Bug nymph · #12–16 — Peacock and a dark body. Older than most of us and still catching fish.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.