PFD PARACHUTE

“The fly came to be after I became a fan of Joe Mitchell’s Split Case PMD nymph, and his Split Case Baetis nymph. The idea of presenting a nymph that had the illusion of emergence seemed to work REALLY well. The profile/silhouette is very accurate, and the nymphs soon became included in my “goto" nymph box. Sitting at the bench one day, as I often do, I played with ideas and came up with the concept of adding a parachute to Joe’s pattern. The foam on either side of the parachute seemed to be an idea not tried, and it worked with presenting Joe’s idea just a bit further along in the emergence. The idea of added buoyancy excited me as I tied them! I started tying the brown split back version first with the yellow foam, just like Joe’s nymph. From there the concept seemed to fit with all mayflies so I just went with the most abundant species in my neighborhood, the PMD and Baetis. I plan to work the concept into new patterns this summer to see how far it can go. “ - Signature Tyer Patrick Daigle