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| Green Drake Emerger/Cripple Hook: #10 TMC 200R Thread: yellow Pearsall's Hackle: olive grizzly Tail: barred waterfowl flank dyed with yellow highlighter pen Body: olive hare's mask dubbed on a loop of the tying silk Half-wing: barred waterfowl flank dyed with yellow highlighter |
Green Drake is the first big
mayfly of the year to show. They are sporadic, initially. Maybe we’ll spot one
drifting like a battle cruiser among the bum-boats of small Grannom riding the
flow. Or perhaps we catch sight of one paddling through the air like a B-52
among the kamikaze sedges.
The first Green Drake of the
season we see is always an exciting event because we know when there’s one,
there’s more to follow. Once the tap is open, trout know it. The fish were probably
onto them even before we saw that one. We
think: Oh Boy. It’s on!
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| Rene Harrop's Drake Hook: #10 TMC 200R Thread: black Hackle: olive grizzly hen fronted with black hen Tail: barred lemon wood duck Body: olive turkey biot & olive dubbed thorax touched with gray rabbit |
The scene might play out on
any of the rivers & streams of the West Slope where the line-up of Drake
species occur in their respective hatch seasons, late spring through summer. And for swingers of flies this is fortunate,
as trout enjoy & appreciate soft-hackled imitations of the big mayflies,
drifted & swung – a fact observed by Rene Harrop, whose killing Green Drake
pattern has become a standard for meeting the famed Henry’s Fork hatch.
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| Hare's Lug & Plover Drake Hook: #10 TMC 200R Thread: yellow Pearsalls or UNI 8/0 Hackle: golden plover (or olive grizzly) Tail: bronze waterfowl flank Body: olive hare's mask dubbed on a loop of the tying silk, gray rabbit touched over the thorax |
On another fork of the Columbia
Drainage, several hundred miles from the Henry’s Fork, before I’d heard of
Harrop’s Drake, I was mining a similar vein, & I smiled when I first saw the
patt, because I recognized Harrop’s dressing was not dictated by fancy, but
straight from the authentic mojo of experience & close observation. It is
built on an ancient frame, tested & true, incorporating the sound
principles & elements of the soft-hackle tradition. It is a workhorse bait.
These designs hunt the top of
the water column, where they may be taken as a pre-emerger, cripple, or drowned
adult. Without a lot of bulk to buoy & sail the fly, they bust the surface
tension immediately, then hover & track well; the flowing soft hackle
coalescing the illusion of (moving) body mass & nuance of coloration.
