wanted: simple green drakes

jayL

jayL

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Jan 2, 2007
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All,

I've never fished a green drake hatch, therefore have never tied a green drake pattern.

I've been tying for about a year... maybe a little more, and I'm not too bad at it. I attribute this directly to my 'keep it simple, you idiot' approach, for what it's worth. I love to mess around at the vise, but when it comes down to it, I just want to get as many effective flies as possible in the time I have. I definitely like fishing more than tying, that's for sure.

So... Between some travels that I plan to take this year, the jamboree (hopefully we get them), and my curiosity... I'm gonna need some green drakes.

Anyone willing to share some simple patterns to cover the hatch? I'd prefer the duns, as I like to fish dries most, but nymphs, emergers, and spinners are needed too. I see alot of fancy extended bodies. Something tells me that these are a bit complex. Is the effectiveness worth the trouble? Am I overestimating the difficulty?

Thanks in advance.
 
i tied a bunch of extended body drakes over the winter, not too hard, my 4th or 5th was actucally useable! google will turn up lots of different techniques, the needle in the vise technique worked for me. just remeber the "green" drake isn't really green. and if get you skunked, at least your flies lok cool.
 
Thanks.

Ive found alot on google, but I'm not really sure where the practicality meets art line is. Also, I've noticed a huge discrepancy between western and eastern versions, so I'm looking for a good pa-centric pattern.
 
these look pretty simple..I tied the spinner with the flatter hackle last year. Not that I got to fish it in the flood. :-? Should cover you.

http://tinyurl.com/29tlu9
http://tinyurl.com/2xglaj
http://tinyurl.com/2hayy5
http://tinyurl.com/2x9bjr
http://tinyurl.com/ythbbv
 
Thanks tom. Those (first and last one) look like a western color scheme. From what I gather, our green drakes aren't green. Is that true? Are the ligher ones the way to go?
 
I was just going for simple patterns...if you google eastern green drake...you may be able to check out the color and adjust accordingly. I think they can vary even from stream to stream. I have only ever attempted to fish them here once and it rained all weekend so I don't even know if my pattern worked. I used a light olive. But someone will come along and help you with the color variations.
 
From the Green Drakes I have seen in Pennsylvania, I would recommend a light cream abdomen, olive to green thorax and yellow/green wings. I fished a pattern on Fishing Creek at last year's jamboree that had a darker green body, but had bright yellow/green feather wings and it got more attention than the cream-colored bodied imitations without bright wings. I think it may pay to have a small variety. The white-bodied imitations are the spinner "coffin fly" and are more like the molted adult that lays eggs and dies spent-winged near dusk.
 
None of these are exact patterns for what I was trying to describe, but they show the type of wing. The third example is the closest.

green-drake.jpg


0701g05.jpg


Mai.jpg
 
I don't know about simple, but an effective pattern is the clouser dun. A picture of it is on this page, in the middle top:
http://www.clouserflyfishing.com/naph1.html

The recipe does not seem to be on the web, but it is in his book of fly recipes Tying & Fishing the Fly Patterns of BOB CLOUSER
 
Jay, Try this.

Hook: #8-10 2xl dry fly hook
Thread. Tan or brown
Tail: Moose main or stiff dark dun hackle barbs.
Body: Creamy yellow fine dubbing
Wing: Mallard flan feathers yellow/green
Hackle: Dark dun and grizzley dyed green.

Tie in the tail and wing pointing forward. Thread back to bend. Splay the tail. Dub up to the wing. Build up the wing in front to stand it up and separate it. Tie in your hackles and finish dubbing to the eye...not too close. Take the thread back to the front of the wing. Now make three turns each with both hackles. Two behind and one in front for each. maybe another in front. Tie off the hackle and whip finish behind the dubbed head.

It should be kind of bushy.

Using the same materials tie in a high vis post and parachute the hackle.

Here is another...Same pattern except comparadun. Use tan or died green deer body hair for the wing and for the tail, some tan or dark brown. You want to yank this one around alittle on the water to look like a stuck dun.

Here is a nymph that worked last year for me...Jonas recommended it and I bought it...I never buy flies but I am glad I did. It is some kind of epoxy back swimming emerger.

I will take a pic and attach them to the post...give me a minute.

Maurice
ps, my altime favorite fly for the green drake hatch is a #14 sulfur.

Here are the pics...boy do I need to tie some drakes...they are lookin' peekid! :-o
 
I've been chasing the green drake hatch for over twenty years, and have fished it in nearly every part of the state.
There is a definite difference between freestone and limestone greendrakes IMO.
Freestoners are smaller and greener. Limestoners are bigger and more yellowish.
Hence, I tie 2 basic patterns.
freestone drakes - #10 regular shank hook, mallard flank dyed green for wings, black tails, grayish olive dubbing for body, and ginger and grizzly hackle.
limestone drakes - #10 - #8 2Xlong hook, yellow calf hair for wing, tail, body, and hackle same as above.
I've been using these 2 dun patterns for years with good success
 
Here's another simple one that werks well fer me....werks every bit as good as the fancy varmint down below.

Tail-Brown/Grizzly mixed
Body-Cream fur
Rib- Brown thread
Hackle-Oversized by 1 size grizzly trimmed top and bottom
 
Good stuff.

I'm gonna get some 2xlong hooks and give them a try.

thanks
 
Festus:

That's a beautiful spinner. Are the wings made out of some kind of foam?
I tie some like that using a materiel called microweb, which I bought over 10 years ago - I don't even know if it's available anymore. And I don't have much left
 
Thanks. It's a foam that a buddy of mine gets me from a shop in the Sunbury/Selinsgrove area. Not sure of the name of the shop, but I see other shops selling the same material, so it's out there. I think FFP has it at their shop.
 
Festus:

I'll have to give it a try, although I wonder if it might twist the tippet with a fly that big. The microweb materiel is porous,- lets air thru it to help with that problem.

By the way - I just gotta ask - Are you gonna bring Miss Kitty to the Jamboree?
 
Just to be clear...getting a twisted leader (wind knots) are not caused by the fly, they are caused by an improper casting stroke. With that said, let me say next, I get them all the time. I use the micro mesh and like it too. But if you have problems with your cast, even hackle tips or mallard flank or micro mesh or whatever will twist your leader. So I see no harm in it. Though I do think a solid wing as opposed to a wing that allows some air flow, should twist less. As I told the guy who last reminded me that it was my cast and not the fly, "yes, but any help I can get to counter my casting flaws are greatly appreciated..."
 
By the way - I just gotta ask - Are you gonna bring Miss Kitty to the Jamboree?

Ms Kitty is to busy acting in a barbaric manner with barbaric feeeshin gear to pay any attention to us fly feeshers. :-D :-D
 
Festus...is it foam or is it Webwing material by Hareline? If its the Webwing material I'm still not sure how well that stuff will float but I have seen others use it and was thinking about trying a pattern something what u have shown.
 
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