Parachute Dun

PMD Parachute Dun

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 100 #16-20
Thread	Danville Flymaster 6/0 Yellow
Body	Pale Morning Dun, Superfine
Tail	Light Dun Hackle Fibers
Wingpost	White Turkey Flat
Hackle	Light Ginger Hackle

Parachute Dun

The parachute dun (Paraduns) differs from a standard dun due to the hackle being wound in a horizontal manner. The Parachute technique is generally attributed to a young Scottish fly tier by the name of Helen Todd. She came up with the idea of wrapping horizontally after reading an American Fly Fishing Magazine that described tying the hackle “divided and spent”. A horizontal wrapping of the hackle would achieve the same effect. She used stiff pig bristles for the wing post. However, her employer Alexander Martin, designed a hook with a metal post to wrap the hackle horizontally and patented the hook in 1931. The hooks were too heavy and fell out of favor. Helen Todd continued to tie the pattern using hackle quills for the post.

Wing Posts of Hair

In 1971, Swisher and Richards wrote about using Calf Hair or Deer Hair for wing posts in their book “Selective Trout” and the interest in Parachute Duns became popular. The hackle is usually wound around some kind of wing or post material such as calf hair, turkey flats, or other feather. Tying a parachute dun has many advantages over the standard dun. The parachute will often increase the ability of the fly to land upright on the water with a wing that is very visible. The fly will ride lower in the water film which will more closely resemble that of the naturals. Parachutes are often tied with a hackle size that is one size greater than that tied for standard duns. This gives the fly a “parachute” effect and also increases it’s stability.

Loop Wing

A useful modification of the parachute dun is the loop wing pattern that was introduced by Andre Puyans. The loop wing gives the silhouette of the wing but is very lightweight since the wings are hollow. Puyans first used Mallard Flank to form the loops but went to an Antron Yarn due to the greater durability. The wing is kept sparse with 6 fibers used for flies up to #16 and 4 fibers for flies that are smaller. Other materials used for loop wings are wing quills, stripped hackle stems, Float Vis, and monofilament line. Gary Borger created a veined variation of Puyan’s Loop Wing by adjusting the individual barbs of the Mallard Flank producing different sizes of loops within the larger outer loop.

Puyan’s Loopwing PMD

Borger’s Loopwing PMD

Another useful modification is to use a colored Antron Yarn for the wing post, the pattern is commonly referred to as a Hi-Vis Dun. This will greatly assist in spotting the fly during it’s drift. Neale Streeks (Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Journal, Summer 2011) introduced a Two Tone PMD Dun that has this type of wing post and has been quite successful on the Missouri River in Montana.

The two tone is the blend of colors within the body, he uses Sulphur Orange coloration on the abdomen and Pale Olive (Pale Morning Dun) for the thorax. He adds that there are spinner falls in which the PMD have a rusty appearance, similar to the March Brown paradun, tying these colors to a size 14-20. The main point is that colors will vary with PMDs and don’t lock yourself into just one coloration.

Mayfly Variations

Paraduns can also be tied to represent many other mayflies besides PMD’s. Just change the coloration and size to fit the mayfly. Examples within the variations are BWO Paradun, Green Drake Paradun, March Brown Paradun, and Hare’s Ear Paradun (for Callibaetis).

Al Troth of Dillon, Montana came up with the Gulper Special in 1971 while fishing the callibaetis hatch on Hebgen Lake in southwest Montana. The term “Gulper” comes from the large rainbows and browns which would cruise the surface of the lake gulping down large quantities of tricos, callibaetis, and midges. The sound of the gulp would resonate across the lake. This pattern differs from earlier parachutes in that Al chose to use white or gray Poly Yarn for the wing post. This material has a number of advantages over calf tail or feather wings. It repells water so that the fly will float longer.

It can be used successfully for smaller mayflies, such as tricos and callibaetis, since the poly yarn provides less bulk to the fly. Since the material comes in different colors, Al also experimented with color choice so that light colors would be used against dark backdrops or dark colors would be used to improve the silhouette on flat water conditions. Al preferred to tie his Gulpers with a hackle that was one size smaller than the hook and tied his original pattern with dark brown Beaver dubbing. Today, most Gulper patterns use a tan dubbing color for the Callibaetis and an olive color for the Tricos.

Biot Bodies

Depending on how the biot is wrapped, you can get either a ribbed appearance or a smooth one. Peel the biot from quill. At the base of the biot is a notch or indentation. Attaching the biot to the hook shank, if the notch faces downward the body will be smooth, if it faces upward, the body will have a series of fringed barbules. The smooth body will require that you overlap the biot somewhat to hide the leading fringe side. Remember to keep your biots damp when in use as this will keep them from splitting, just like quills.

A number of fly tyers are known for their use of biot bodies. A.K. Best preferred Turkey Biots for most of his mayflies that were #10-14 but preferred stripped quills for smaller mayflies. Rene Harrop utilizes Turkey Biots for many of of his mayfly duns down to a size 22. Rene will often use CDC as a wing post. And, the late Shane Stalcup, was also fond of using goose biots with a CDC hackle.

Variations

Two Tone PMD Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #16-20
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Yellow
Body	Sulphur Orange Superfine
Thorax	Pale Morning Dun Superfine
Tail	Med. Dun Spade Hackle Fibers
Wingpost	Antron Yarn, Red
Hackle	Med. Dun Hackle

BWO Parachute Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #16-22
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Olive
Body	BWO Superfine
Thorax	Blue Wing Olive Superfine
Tail	Med. Dun Spade Hackles
Wingpost	Med. Dun Turkey Flat
Hackle	Med. Dun Hackle

Green Drake Parachute Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #12
Thread	Danville Flymaster 6/0 Tan
Body	Gray Olive Superfine
Thorax	Gray Olive Superfine
Ribbing	Danville Floss Burnt Orange, single strand
Tail	Orange Bull Elk Hair
Wingpost	White Calf Tail
Hackle	Olive-dyed Grizzly Hackle

March Brown Parachute Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #12-16
Thread	Uni-Thread 8/0 Camel
Body	Cinnamon Caddis Superfine
Thorax	Cinnamon Caddis Superfine
Ribbing	Brown Floss, twisted
Tail	Brown Spade Hackle Fibers
Wingpost	Woodduck Gold dyed Mallard Flank
Hackle	Brown Hackle

Hare’s Ear Parachute Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #12-18
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Gray
Body	Hare's Ear Plus Dubbing, Hare's Ear
Thorax	Hare's Ear Plus Dubbing, Hare's Ear
Tail	Med Dun Spade Hackle Fibers
Wingpost	White Turkey Flat
Hackle	Medium Dun Hackle

Gulper Special

Hook	TMC 100, #14-18
Thread	Uni-thread Gray 8/0
Body	Callibaetis Superfine
Thorax	Callibaetis Superfine
Tail	Grizzly Spade Hackle fibers
Wingpost	White Poly Yarn
Hackle	Grizzly

Mahogany Parachute Dun

Hook	TMC 100, #12-16
Thread	Uni-thread Rusty Brown 8/0
Body	Aussie Possum, Nat. Reddish Brown
Thorax	Aussie Possum, Nat. Reddish Brown
Ribbing	Small Copper Wire
Tail	Blue Dun Hackle fibers
Wingpost	Dun CDC
Hackle	Grizzly Coachman Brown




	1. Attach thread and apply a small thread mound at hook bend.
	2. Tie in 6-10 hackle fibers for the tail, one length of hook shank. The thread mound will splay the hackle fibers when the thread is tightened behind the mound. Wrap the butt ends of the hackle fibers to the 2/3 position of the shank and trim off the tag ends..
	3. Tie in a 1/4″ section of Turkey Flats for a wingpost at the 2/3 position. Keep the tips of the flat aligned. Wing should be about the length of the hook shank.
	4. Trim off the butt ends by lifting and cutting the butt ends at an angle and secure with thread wraps. Apply a couple of wraps beneath the wing to lift it up and secure against the butt wraps.
	5. Use a bundled fiber post method to bring the wingpost upright. You should put about 6 wraps in front of the bundle, followed with 4-5 wraps around the base of the wingpost for hackle support. A few wraps around the wingpost base and the shank will secure the position.
	6. Wrap the thread back to the tail tie-in position, just in front of the thread mound.
	7. Apply a small amount of dubbing around the thread to wrap an abdomen. Apply a thinner amount of dubbing closest to the tail so you can achieve a tapered abdomen.
	8. Wrap the dubbing forward, creating a thinnly tapered body up to the wingpost.
	9. Tie in one light ginger hackle at the hackle butt in front of the wingpost at the shank facing you. The hackle should have the concave side of the hackle facing away from the wingpost. Put a couple of wraps around the hacklestem and shank to secure.
	10. Apply some thread wraps around the hackle and the wingpost securing them together. Also secure the butt end of the hackle to the hook shank behind the eye. Trim any butt material that extends to the eye.
	11. Apply some additional dubbing around the shank at the base of the wingpost. This should be built up larger than the abdomen.
	12. Wrap the hackle 4-5 turns around the wingpost proceeding in a downwards direction. Bring the hackle tip over the hook eye and underneath the thread. Bringing the thread over the hackle tip will lock the hackle into place. If you keep the bobbin tip close to the hook shank behind the eye, you can wrap thread around the shank to lock in this tip without capturing the parachute hackle fibers.
	13. Trim the hackle tip and apply some additional thread wraps behind the eye. Whip Finish or apply some half hitches with a Half Hitch Tool..