BirdTrout
Open the map
Trico Spinner
A dry fly, tied #20–24, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — July–September.
A spent-wing dry fly with a black body and white wings, tied flush in the surface as a mayfly lies once it has finished. The hook is standard dry-fly wire in sizes 20 through 24, the thread black 14/0, the tail two white microfibbets splayed wide, the body black thread or fine black dubbing, and the wings white poly yarn or spinner wing material set spent to either side. There is no hackle, so nothing holds the fly off the water. It is tied against the trico, Tricorythodes spp., a mayfly of July through September in water between 58 and 72 degrees. Its hours are eight to eleven in the morning on flat water, fished on 7X with a good deal of patience: trout are eating dozens a minute at that point and the fly has to be in the feeding lane rather than near it. A summer pattern.
- #20–24Hook 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 | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 20–24 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 14/0 |
| Tail | Two white microfibbets, splayed |
| Body | Black thread or fine black dubbing |
| Wings | White poly yarn or spinner wing material, spent |
| Hackle | None |
When to fish it
Eight to eleven in the morning on flat water. The fish are eating dozens a minute and your fly has to be in the feeding lane, not near it.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active july–september, in water from 58°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
- 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
- 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
- Abb Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°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.
- Trico Dun dry fly · #20–24 — First light, before the spinner fall. The window is under an hour.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.
- CDC Caddis dry fly · #14–20 — Lower in the film than an Elk Hair. For flat water and educated fish.
- Elk Hair Caddis dry fly · #12–20 — Floats forever, skates on command, works when nothing is hatching.