Dry Flies

The Chubby Chernobyl is a buoyant terrestrial dry fly that represents a hopper, stonefly, or large attractor insect riding low in broken water. It works well through summer and early fall on freestone streams, pocket water, and grassy riverbanks, and it also makes a steady dry in a dry-dropper rig. The pattern is approachable for tyers with basic foam and rubber-leg control; the main challenge is keeping the foam, wing, and legs centered.

The Adams is a general mayfly searcher pattern that suggests a broad range of duns without imitating any single species. Fish it during mixed or unidentified hatches, on riffled freestone water, and as a prospecting fly through spring and summer. Leonard Halladay tied the original in Mayfield, Michigan, around 1922 at the request of Charles Adams. Halladay's first version used golden pheasant tippets for the tail; the modern standard substitutes mixed grizzly and brown hackle fibers, which is what's tied here.

The Hendrickson is a Catskill classic, tied by Roy Steenrod around 1916 on the Beaverkill and named for his friend and angling companion A.E. Hendrickson. It imitates the male dun of Ephemerella subvaria, a mid-spring mayfly of the eastern United States that hatches when water temperatures hold in the low 50s F, typically from late April through May. The female counterpart, with its rusty-brown quill body, is dressed as the Red Quill or Light Hendrickson; this pattern is the male, with the distinctive pinkish-tan fox-belly body. The dressing given here follows Art Flick's Streamside Guide (1947), the standard Catskill recipe with upright divided wood duck wings and a dun hackle collar.