How to Tie the Parachute Pheasant Tail Dry Fly

Learn how to tie the Parachute Pheasant Tail Dry Fly pattern, including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly-tying skills here.

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I'm not sure about the history of this fly. I do know the Pheasant Tail Nymph came out of England about 100 years ago and the parachute style hackle showed up in the 1930's and has been in and out of favor since then. Today the parachute style flies are hot.

Recipe

• Hook: TMC 100BL; 14
• Thread: UTC 70 Denier; Black
• Post: Hareline Para Post Wing; White
• Tail: Pheasant Tail Fibers
• Body: Pheasant Tail Fibers
• Rib: UTC Ultra Wire; Extra Small Copper
• Thorax: Peacock Herl
• Hackle: Whiting Dry Fly Cape or Saddle Grizzly Hackle

Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Carl at Trident Fly Fishing. Today we're going to tie a Parachute Pheasant Tail dry fly. I'm not sure about the history of this fly. I do know the Pheasant Tail Nymph came out of England about 100 years ago, and the parachute style hackle showed up in the 1930s and has been in and out of favor since then. Today the parachute style flies are very hot. Here's our fly in the vise and we'll get the tie started.

The hook we're going to use today is a TMC 100 size 14 - that's their standard dry fly hook. Our thread today is a UTC 70 denier in black. We'll get our thread started about an eye length and a half behind the hook eye, wrap back to about midpoint, then back forward again. This is where we're going to tie in our post. For our wing we're going to use some Hareline Para Post in white.

There are a few different ways to tie this in. I like to come in right underneath the hook where I'm going to tie it in, just hold it straight up, and make some crossing wraps. That anchors it pretty well. To form the actual post for the fly, we're going to change the position of the hook a little bit and wrap up about two eye lengths up our material, then back down. We're going to reposition our hook. We don't need all that material so we're going to cut a little bit of it off so it doesn't get in our way.

This is going to be UTC extra small wire in copper. We'll start by tying this in right behind the post, tie that in on the near side of the hook, all the way back to the start of the bend. Then we'll tie in our tail and body material, which is going to be natural pheasant tail. We'll pull off five or six fibers and cut them off. I'm going to measure this tail out to be the length of the hook shank. Tie that in right on top - looks about right. Pick those fibers up, pull them back out of the way, and run our thread back forward to the back of our post.

Get a hold of our trusty hackle pliers and we're going to wrap these counterclockwise. We're doing it this way because our wire is going to be wrapped in the opposite direction. The wire adds just a little bit of sparkle to the fly, but most importantly some reinforcement for these pheasant tail fibers. They're really fragile, and if a fish gets his teeth in there I guarantee they're going to break apart. Once we reach the back of the para post I'm going to tie this off and cut off our excess.

Take our wire and wrap that forward clockwise - in the opposite direction that we tied the pheasant tail fibers in. Probably four or five turns is all you're going to get. Reach the tie-in point and tie that off. I have terrible luck breaking this stuff off so I always bring my cheap pair of scissors along to cut things.

Next we're going to tie in our hackle. For that we're going to use the Whiting's hundred pack - this one's in grizzly, size 14. These are a real deal money-wise. You can tie a hundred or better flies out of a pack and they're all sized for you. You don't have to worry about fussing through a cape. Shiny side out, we're going to tie this in and wrap it up the post and then back down.

For the thorax of the fly we're going to use some peacock herl. Tie this in right behind our post, run our thread forward to our eye. We're going to take some wraps behind our post, a few in front, crossing to the back. The thorax is supposed to be about a third bigger than the abdomen of a fly. Wrap our material forward to the eye of the hook, tie this off, and cut our excess. We're going to jump our thread back around the back of the post to the front and just leave it hanging.

Grab our hackle and make four or five turns around that post, working down the post as we go. When we get to the bottom, take that thread that we dropped over it and capture it, keeping our thread low and going underneath the hackle for at least three turns. Then jump our thread forward to the eye, form a small head, take our whip finish tool, do a four or five turn whip finish, unseat the knot, and cut the thread. Reach in underneath the hackle and cut off the excess material.

I like to put a dab of super glue or Zap-A-Gap right at the base of where we tied that hackle in. Just take a drop on the end of my bodkin, pull everything back, and make a swipe across the bottom. Once that hardens up there's no way that's going to come apart. For the head of the fly, just a little bit of Loon's water-based head cement - soaks in good.

The height of the para post is kind of up to you, but I usually bring it back to about mid-tail. Snip it off, stand it up, and there we have our completed fly. Please feel free to add comments, and don't forget to hit that subscribe button to view all the new content here at Trident Fly Fishing. Thanks for watching - hope to see you again next time.