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In his masterful book, The Dry Fly, Gary La Fontaine demonstrated that during a hatch you will often catch more fish on a floating emerger than on a full-blown surface dun. That is especially true in the early stages of a hatch, but often remains consistent for the duration. Hatches that produce a lot of cripples like the Pale Morning Dun or Baetis make this especially important.
Of course there are dozens of patterns to match this stage of a hatch but I am always looking for patterns that are generic. Generic flies save clutter on both your tying desk and in your fly boxes. If you learn to tie them well all you have to do is vary the size and color to match a wide variety of hatching insects. If they are durable and easy to tie, so much the better.
There is nothing especially fancy or new about this pattern, in fact there are many patterns tied in this style. I simply adapted it to the Baetis (I also use it in different colors for a PMD emerger) we see on the Deschutes. Since spring Baetis are larger than their fall cousins, we will tie this one in size 16. Here is how you tie it.
Hook: Tiemco 900 BL or equivalent - size 16
Thread: 8/0, olive
Tail: Pheasant tail fibers
Rib: Fine copper wire
Body: Pheasant tail fibers
Wing Case: Gray, closed cell foam (1/8" thick)
Thorax: Olive superfine dubbing (or equivalent)
Hackle Dark olive (or dark dun)
1. Tie in the pheasant tail fibers, making the tail about the length of the hook shank. Do not trim the excess. It will be used to form the body.
2. Tie in the fine gold wire, keeping it out of the way once tied in. Then wrap the pheasant tail fibers forward to form the body of the fly. The body should occupy no more than the back half of the hook.
3. Reverse wrap the copper wire for forming the rib. Reverse wrapping is necessary to prevent the wire from disappearing into the body fibers.
4. Cut a thin sliver of the gray closed cell foam (a little less than 1/8" wide) and tie it in just in front of the body. Tie it in pointing back toward the bend of the hook and leave it there, out of the way, until the final step.
5. Tie in a good quality, dry-fly hackle with the shiny side of the feather facing forward. The hackle fibers should be slightly longer than the shank of1. the hook. Leave the hackle standing upright and out of the way.
6. Dub the thorax, making it fairly bulky compared to the body. Be sure to leave yourself room for the head of the fly. Superfine dubbing works well here both because it is easy to dub on smaller flies and because it floats reasonably well.
7. Palmer the hackle forward (open wraps) over the thorax. A few wraps are all that is necessary. Then trim the fibers on top of the hook, leaving only those on the sides and bottom.
8. Pull the foam forward over the thorax
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forming the wing case of the fly. Let it form a lump rather than pulling it down too tightly. Tie the foam down well and then as you get ready to trim the excess, stretch the foam a bit before you cut it. This way you get a cleaner cut.
9. Wrap a small head on the fly and whip finish. Cement the head.
10. Finally, trim the hackle fibers on the bottom of the hook, leaving only those on the sides.
Fish the fly with a traditional dead-drift float. There is no need to grease it because the foam will keep the fly in the surface film. You do not want it floating too high. Will you be able to see this fly very well? No, but it does not matter. Fish the rise. But do watch the area in which the fly is floating carefully, because often you will see little more than a flashing side. When tied as a PMD (same size, but yellow body and thorax) and fished over that hatch it will often be taken so subtly that no rise ring will appear. They just suck it down. On Baetis the rises are usually more apparent. If you are obsessed with wanting to see the fly, tie it with white closed cell foam. It will make no difference to the fish.
Baetis hatches are of course a bit unpredictable. Cloudy days are best, though I have occasionally seen them in bluebird days. If it is raining, they can be spectacular. I have seen them as early as March (the earliest I usually show up) and as late as early June (and, of course, again in the fall). One of the best I ever saw was during the salmon fly hatch near South Junction. April and early May, however, are the prime times. If you hit the hatch during that time, give this one a try. It will out-fish a traditional dun pattern every time. Dick
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