Black Drake - Upper Williamson - Oregon

Anyone have a good pattern that they have personally fished in the
Upper Williamson for the Black Drake hatch in June.

I understand that it is just the spinners that are really available to
the fish.

I have some books and have some ideas of what to tie, but would really
like some input on a pattern that is known to fish well there.
Especially what color of dubbing or hackle is best suited.

I'll be there the end of June.
Thanks ... Steve Egge

"steve egge" wrote

Anyone have a good pattern that they have personally fished in the
Upper Williamson for the Black Drake hatch in June.



I've fished the Upper Williamson
and I've fished Gray Drake Spinners in a few places
but I've never put the two together
so I don't really qualify to answer
but

on my monitor ( color is a very difficult thing to define, and color on
computers varies, with hardware ) the pictures here

http://www.westfly.com/ento/mays/graydrake.htm

show the two stages of this bug important to anglers very well

Note: the 'black drake' is a 'gray drake' spinner if you look carefully at
the spinner picture you will see that the underside is much lighter than the
back ... fishermen see ( and name) the back .... fish see the underside

the wings of all spinners are hyaline ( clear and sparkly ) and opinion
varies on how best to imitate that .... organza, white or light gray Zelon,
light dun hackle, etc

the legs of the bug will be mixed into the view of the trout in the same
area as the wings and they are dark, so the wing area becomes a mix of clear
and dark gray, to the trout

I've had good success with a number 12 standard Adams .... but to work up a
specific pattern
....tail, darkish dun
.... body darkish 'Adams' gray ( maybe ribbed with darker gray or brown ( the
bugs have brown overtones ))
.... wing ..two sparse areas of organza or Zelon, tied spent, with grizzly
hackle wrapped sparsely behind, through and in front of them, clipped top
and bottom
... chemical ... head cement and WaterShed pretreatment

Now the real problem, spinner falls of gray drakes can be mind boggingly
heavy and presentation becomes far more important than pattern ... you have
to put the fly right where the fish opens his mouth, WHEN he opens it, he's
not going to change that place and time for no single bug, manmade or
natural ...at least this is what I've seen elsewhere with this bug

tie up some nymphs and fish them near shore swinging and pulsing them into
the shore ... a 'near nuff' is near enough G

"Larry L" wrote

... wing ..two sparse areas of organza or Zelon, tied spent, with grizzly
hackle wrapped sparsely behind, through and in front of them, clipped top
and bottom

I'd tie in the hackle, leave a bit of space, tie in first bit ( sparse ) of
organza, leave some space, tie in second bit of organza, work thread back to
hackle without disturbing organza, apply dubbing and dub forward in the
'spaces' without disturbing organza, wind hackle a turn in loose turns (
palmered ) behind, between and in front of organza, tie off, finish and
cement ... trim hackle underneath taking care to not cut out the organza ...
the goal is to have the organza's great sparkle where it can impress Mr
Trout

I, personally, would take the fly out like that ( untrimmed on top ) for
better visibility and would only trim the top after on the water and if I
got desperate. As I said, I've had good success during Gray Drake activity
with a full hackled standard Adams and fish will often take, maybe 'prefer,'
spinners of all mayflies while one or both wings are still upright

Thanks Larry,

I'll give it a try. Agree with being able to streamside modify.
I've been in lots of situations where I've tied a bunch of flies up
that were just a little bit off ... being ablet to modify them is a
bonus. Even if it is just trimming hackle.

Steve

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:38:20 GMT, "Larry L"
wrote:


"Larry L" wrote

... wing ..two sparse areas of organza or Zelon, tied spent, with grizzly
hackle wrapped sparsely behind, through and in front of them, clipped top
and bottom

I'd tie in the hackle, leave a bit of space, tie in first bit ( sparse ) of
organza, leave some space, tie in second bit of organza, work thread back to
hackle without disturbing organza, apply dubbing and dub forward in the
'spaces' without disturbing organza, wind hackle a turn in loose turns (
palmered ) behind, between and in front of organza, tie off, finish and
cement ... trim hackle underneath taking care to not cut out the organza ...
the goal is to have the organza's great sparkle where it can impress Mr
Trout

I, personally, would take the fly out like that ( untrimmed on top ) for
better visibility and would only trim the top after on the water and if I
got desperate. As I said, I've had good success during Gray Drake activity
with a full hackled standard Adams and fish will often take, maybe 'prefer,'
spinners of all mayflies while one or both wings are still upright