Real. Easy. Mayfly.

Great for skinny water

When I was working my way through college, working in a local fly shop, one of my fellow shop rats invited me to head out and fish a PMD hatch early one June. As we ventured out, I made sure I had a few of my favorite PMD dry fly patterns at the ready. As we began fishing a very slow and glassy section of the river, my buddy was into fish right off the bat while I struggled to get any takers. My comparadun wasn't cutting it. I ended up swallowing my pride and took a peek at his pattern. It was nothing more than a hook with very sparse yellow dubbing and a few wraps of light dun hackle. No tail, no wings and nothing else. It was the only thing, on top, they'd eat that day. Since that time, I usually always have a variety of "sparse" style mayflies ready to roll. 

This particular pattern is nothing fancy nor is it ground breaking, but I've been on a kick lately incorporating UV resin coated bodies into my dry flies. Surprisingly enough, a UV coated body doesn't sink like you'd think it would. Granted, you're not slopping on a ton of the resin, but a light coating will work just fine without affecting flotation.

And I'm again impressed with the awesomeness that is the D202 hook from Allen. It's a great dry fly hook -- one of my favorites. And if you haven't tried UNI-Flexx for your ribbing (or bodies), you need to get some on your tying desk. It's basically a span-flex type material, but comes on a spool.

Material List

Hook: Allen D202 #14  -- Buy Here --
Thread: MFC Premium, 6/0, Yellow  -- Buy Here --
Shuck: Sparkle Emerger Yarn, Gray  -- Buy Here --
Body: Thread; UNI-Flexx, Gray  -- Buy Here --
Hackle: Whiting Bronze Cape, Dun  -- Buy Here --
Body Coating: Loon UV Fly Finish, Flow  -- Buy Here --
Thorax: Ice Dub, UV Lt. Yellow  -- Buy Here --

**(Obviously, you can mix and match colors here to get Baetis, Callibaetis, Tricos, etc)