By varying the materials used, the colours and size I have accounted for trout, bream, flathead, mangrove jack and even barramundi on wiggle minnows. The recipe I have set out below is just one version of this very adaptable fly and I would encourage you to individualize the fly to your own requirements.
Well if you put a burley trail of bread out have a look at a bits of bread floating around they really doesn’t have any one single form – there just bits of bread. They do however have function in that they float in the water rather than on the water and they are off white rather than pure white. This fly matches the form of a piece of bread floating and has the added advantage of being highly visible so it can be used as an indicator if for example you want to fish a second weighted fly below.
Both floating and wet beetles (including drowned terrestrials beetles and aquatic beetles) should be fished in the current with as little line drag as possible or with a very short twitching action. A nondescript well tied beetle pattern if presented in the right way when fish have beetles on their menu, more often than not, will be accepted by fish. Consequently no fly box would be complete without a selection of beetle patterns.
Whilst not tied to imitate any particular insect this down wing style of fly can be tied with your favorite materials and in your favorite colours to imitate a range of insects. It is a good prospecting fly when nothing appears to be happening. In larger sizes it can be twitched or fished dead drift to imitate a hopper, cicada or other terrestrial insect that has found itself in the water or in smaller sizes can be danced across the surface to imitate a caddis fly.
This is more of a class of flies rather than just a fly. Perhaps the best known Para Dun Emerger is the Parachute Adams. It was derived form the Adams Irresistible and whilst the Irresistible sits high on the surface film the parachute version sits comfortably in the film making it a very useful emerger pattern.
My bullet nosed foam hopper has a general hopper type form and function and works well in smaller sizes as a representation of a Trouser-Brace hopper or Wingless hopper and in larger sizes with a yellow foam body as a representation of a Yellow Winged hopper. The incorporation of foam and deer make this a particularly good fast water fly or a fly that will support a wet fly quite comfortably in a dry / wet two fly team.
If I could only carry one surface fly when fishing for Bass, Yellow belly and other native species my black Poll-Head-Popper would be it. They a definite “boof”as the fly lands and that is often enough to induce a strike.
