parachute adams

[brandy]

I am wondering what the difference between calf tail and buck tail is. The pattern that I have calls for calf, but all I have is buck.
Will the fly present properly or not?

[Rip Tide]

You don't want to use buck tail for a parachute post. Too thick, too stiff
I use poly yarn as the wing on all my parachutes and many other of my drys too.
It's easy to deal with an you can trim it to size after you hackle.
Normally I'll use grey or cream, but some guys use a bright, easy to see color such as chartreuse or orange

[peregrines]

Brandy-

Poly will work well as Rip Tide said. Tie a strand in by the middle and pull it straight up and take some wraps up the doubled strand. The nice thing about it is you can leave the wing long to tie the fly, then trim to length when you're done.

If you want to use natural materials, use calf BODY hair instead of calf TAIL. The hair on calf body hair is straight and much easier to work with- it stacks easier in a hair stacker and is easier to control. Calf tail (often sold as "Kip Tail") is very curly and crinkly and much harder to work with.

I use calf body hair for other stuff like the divided wings on Wulff type flies and the wing on Trudes too, even though many recipes call for calf tail.

For smaller parachutes and "thorax style" dry flies I use "Turkey Flats" instead of hair. This is a turkey feather that you can use the tips of or cut slips from for the "post" (on parachutes) or wing (on Thorax style dries). They come in a range of dyed colors as well as white. (I use mostly white for small Adams and medium dun dyed for thorax style flies etc.) On smaller size parachutes 18 and smaller, the turkey flats are much easier to use than hair. (I use them for all sizes of Thorax style dries)

Thorax style flies fish similar to parachutes, with a single wing, and hackle wrapped around the shank in 5-6 open turns and clipped on the bottom to ride flush in the film.

mark

[brandy]

thanks guys...it seems the more I get into this fly tying thing, the more I have around my desk

[jpbfly]

Originally Posted by brandy

thanks guys...it seems the more I get into this fly tying thing, the more I have around my desk

you had been warned about it

[BigCliff]

If I bother to tie parachutes, I'll always use a round foam or poly yarn post.

For a natural post, I wouldn't expect bucktail to function any worse than other materials, it would just take longer to get the tips evened up due to its length and lack of straightness.

Anybody out there used deer body hair for parachute posts to get a little bigger puff for visibility? I wonder how much the bulk would interfere with casting though.

[peregrines]

Cliff-

I use coastal deer hair/comparadun hair (fine short deer hair), but use it on sparkle duns, comparaduns, and X caddis type patterns rather than parachutes to fish in the film in slow water (same types of water where you'd use parachutes) and as wings on stuff like Quigley cripples. Haven't tried it as a post, but i imagine it would flare a lot, deer body hair used for spinning even more so.

Some folks also use hair for the feet of snow shoe hare for posts on parachutes, but I find it tough to work with as a post.

mark

[Jimmie]

A few of us that get together to tie recently had this discussion. It started when I said that there were some "Western Coachmen" in a fly shop tied with calf tail (wings not posts). Our lead tier said best to use a material that floats better like white deer belly hair. Every parachute that we've tied has been with poly yarn. It would seem that the materials ability to float would be a consideration.

[BigCliff]

Originally Posted by Jimmie

It would seem that the materials ability to float would be a consideration.

While true, if your fly sinks to the point that the post is having to float it, your fly is sunk. The hackles around the post float it the fly, not the post. (foam posts are an exception, and one more reason to like them, in my book)

[JoJer]

I use foam posts also,but it's been years since I bought round foam. I cut thin pieces of foam sheet for wing posts: same advantage as the poly- you can start with a longer piece thats easier to work with, then trim to size. I get a wide variety of color choice, too.