Shhhh! Try A Parachute Adams!

It may be the fly fishing world’s worst-kept secret, but I’m always surprised by the number of anglers I run across who don’t have at least a few parachute Adamses in their default fly box. The parachute version has all the advantages of the classic (see Paul Schullery’s “A Great Salesman“), but with a highly visible “post,” typically of white calf-tail, although some even prefer a fluorescent orange.
As Morgan Lyle notes this morning in “The Guessing Game Begins,” the parachute Adams isn’t just a great early-season pattern, since it does a credible imitation of blue-winged olives, but it also tops the list of flies for general prospecting. “”It’s just such a great all-around imitation of so many different bugs,” [the Flyshack’s Mike] Bokan said. He noted that parachute-style flies ride with their bellies flush on the surface, and can suggest either a newly hatched dun or a spinner that’s already mated and returned to the stream to lay its eggs.”