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Renegade
A dry fly, tied #12–18, carried year round. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year.
A double-hackled attractor with a hackle at each end, tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 12–18 with black 8/0 thread. A brown hackle sits at the bend, a peacock herl body fills the shank, a white hackle finishes the front, and a tag of fine gold tinsel closes the tail end. The two hackles fore and aft give it a silhouette that points at no particular natural, though it is tied here against the midge, Chironomidae, which is available all year in water anywhere from 33 to 75 degrees. Beyond that it is a searching pattern, carried in every season for water with no hatch on it at all. It is fished dry through riffles, and just as often damp, sunk a fraction under the film where the hackles fan out and hold it there. Trout are the target.
- #12–18Hook 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 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 | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 12–18 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 8/0 |
| Rear hackle | Brown, at the bend |
| Body | Peacock herl |
| Front hackle | White |
| Tag | Fine gold tinsel |
When to fish it
A double-hackled attractor with no natural to point at. Fished dry in riffles or damp just under the film.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 75°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.
- Griffith's Gnat dry fly · #18–24 — A cluster of midges in one fly. The winter dry, and the answer to unexplained sippers.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.
- 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.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.