I tie a few hair winged duns but don’t tie them as representations of any particular Dun or Spinner (imago) stage of any specific insect. The Hair Winged Royal Coachman is an excellent example of a hair winged dun. It evolved from origins in England of the 1800’s.
This fly hangs from the surface with the bend of the hook down much in the same way as the natural hangs just as it is breaking the water surface – anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. In any case it is a suggestive fly that has taken many fish during evening midge hatches.
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.
When a caddis fly hatches it rises to the surface of the water, shedding its nest and shuck as it breaks through the surface tension of the water so as to reveal its wings. Caddis flies often use surface movement caused by wind and currents to assist in this process.
Whilst I don’t think either the Original or any of the variants represents any of the naturals that I’ve seen it is a good buggy general purpose hopper pattern. If you experiment with bodies of different colored chenille, yarns and tinsel matched with different colored deer hair you can come up with combinations to suit most small hoppers.
If your only going to carry one nymph pattern this is the one. Whilst this nymph is not tied to represent the nymphal (sub imago or pupa) stage of any specific insect it is a good ‘buggy’ looking fly and readily accepted by trout. Tie it in black, brown, dark olive as well as “Red Tag” and “Adams” or “Hare & Copper” colours and carry a larger (size #10) and smaller (size #14) version of each.
A.K.A. Polaroiding nymph
Although this is a nifty way of representing legs on a fly, particularly a nymph, it is not used very often.
I can remember the first time I tied this fly. I had lost a few nymphs during the day and had limited resources on hand to make up some replacements. A little dubbing and a few church window feather (rein neck pheasant) later and the church nymph was born. It’s not dissimilar to many other nymphs I have seen.
This is just a great all round nymph and it’s definitely worth dedicating on row in your nymph fly box to a selection of flies in this pattern. I certainly use it to make sure that I have flies in two sizes covering those colours such as claret or olive that I don’t use very much but I want represented in my fly box. Whilst this nymph is not tied to represent the nymphal (sub imago or pupa) stage of any specific insect it is a good buggy looking fly and readily accepted by trout.
When bass are feeding on big insects like Cicadas and Hoppers that crash onto the water they also become susceptible to large noisy and obvious flies like Dahlberg Divers cast around their structure or twitched across the surface. At other times they just have a whack at these big flies because there intruding into their domain. In either case the strikes and hook ups can be spectacular.
