March Brown Dun (Parachute Tie)      

Hook: Tiemco TMC 100 #12

Thread: Dark Brown 6/0  

Tail: Brown Microfibbetts

Abdomen/Thorax: Scintilla Colour #78 Ginger

Wing: Dark Brown Deer Hair

Hackle: Brown or Dark Grey

1/ Tie in your thread just behind the hook eye. Wind back to a point roughly 1/4 to 1/3 along the hook shank and towards the rear of the fly. This is the point at which you will tie in your deer hair wing post. Use the photo to the right to gauge exactly how far to take the thread. Once you are happy with the way it looks proceed to Step 2.
2/ Take a small selection of deer hair fibres to be used as the wing post of the pattern. Measure off for length along the hook shank, the wing should be roughly equal in length to this part of the hook. Try to not grab too much or it will cause the fly to fall over as will too tall a wing.
3/ Tie in as shown. For a right handed tier as is the case here pinch the deer hair to the top of the hook shank with the thumb and forefingers of the left hand. Using the right hand take several 'loose' turns hard against the fingers of the left hand, going around the hair and the shank, getting tighter as you move forward towards the hook eye. We don't want the wing to flare but all hair to the front can as it will be trimmed.
4/ Now that you have the secure again pinch the wing flat with the fingers of your left hand and using your scissors in your right cut the excess deer hair as close to the hook as possible. When done add a couple of tight turns again to anchor it securely to the top of the hook.
5/ Now comes the easy part! Hold the wing upright/vertical with your left hand and grab the thread with your right. Take turns around the wing in a clockwise direction until the wing stands up and you have a nice base of thread in place to later wrap your hackle around. The amount of tension to use comes through practice, but one trick it to every few wraps around the deer hair add one around the hook shank.
6/ Next wrap the thread down to the rear of the hook. Select some Microfibbetts or if you don't have them just use brown hackle fibres. Measure off for length against the hook shank as we did earlier and tie them in. Trim the excess and then select some dubbing and apply a small amount to the thread.
7/ Wind this dubbed thread forward to the wing of the fly to form the abdomen. You can see here I have deliberately skip wrapped sections to show through a little of the brown underbody of thread. While the natural dun is very dark in colour his underbody is lighter and so we use this lighter colour dubbing as we are concerned with what the fish sees not what we see. Remove excess dubbing and move on.
8/ Now select a hackle to suit the hook size and tie in. The hackle should be tied in on the far side of the wing and shiny side towards you. Make sure it is out of the way of the next step which is tying the abdomen of the fly. Wind the thread to the eye of the hook and again select some dubbing. Dub a small amount of dubbing to the thread again as we did in Step 6
9/ Take this newly formed rope of dubbing and begin to wind back towards the wing post. Don't worry about the large bump of thread as the thorax should be bigger anyway and a small amount of dubbing over the top will give the correct profile for this pattern. When complete remove any excess dubbing.
10/ We are now ready to wind the parachute style hackle. Being careful not to break the hackle wind it around the wing post in a counter clockwise direction. Use between two and three turns with each successive turn beneath the previous one. When complete take the thread and make three horizontal turns catching the hackle feather and locking it in place. The first over the feather, second under and the third over it again. Pull the thread forward to hook eye and tie off.
11/ This is just a photo from above to give you an idea of the amount of hackle required. This is about the perfect amount for most parachute dun ties. Also notice the slightly tapering body just like the real thing.
12/ This is just a photo from below to give you an idea of the amount of the proportions required.

The Pattern

The March Brown emergences are largely confined to mid Spring and mid Autumn. Distinct from most other mayflies due to their size and colour, they are very prominent amongst fly fishers. Particularly noticeable on the Goulburn as their peak emergences coincide with low water conditions, they are much talked about and revered with many anglers having specific patterns for all stages of this sometimes brilliant hatch.

The nymph of this insect, which will be the next Fly of the Week, is darker brown and has a light underbody. The dun also has a slightly two toned coloration while the spinner has the brilliant colours obvious in the photo. Many mistake these spinners for the rusty coloured spinners of the Kossie that appear most evenings at this time of year although whether the fish worry too much is anyone's guess.

To imitate this dun we have stayed with a classic parachute tie in the correct colour and size. The parachute dun is the most effective way to imitate the sub imago stages of our mayfly species, its profile and correct presentation fooling many fish every season. In this case we have used a prominent deer hair wing which is in keeping in line with the naturals. A lighter coloured body would at first appear to be incorrect but we are trying to imitate what the fish sees as opposed to what we see from above. As the colour of the underbody is fairly light we have used, with great success, this ginger coloured dubbing that in fact is more a tan/brown colour. Pretty spot on in this case. While the darker hackle could possibly give the impression that the upper body is in fact darker we do not see this as a major factor. The main characteristics of size (#12), shape (low riding and prominent wing) and colour (underbody and wing) are all met here. As for presentation the final of the four necessaries to consistently catch fish the fly always presents properly unlike split wing patterns which often fall on their side making them useless.

Fishing it

The pattern works very well when duns are on the menu. While we could go on about this it really is quite simple. Match the hatch. Pick a parachute pattern in the correct size and coloration and fish it dead drift over a fish. Also works very well in the slower glides with a non beadhead nymph (March Brown or Brown Seal's Fur) suspended below it and just above the bottom. Another favourite is just on evening when these duns are hatching you will also often find rustys and grey duns. Fishing a March Brown in tandem with these other flies can be very rewarding with the two choices for the fish. Often a godsend when the light is failing and locating a #16 parachute tie is next to impossible. One last situation of interest is blind prospecting. While many use Royal Wulffs and Stimulators etc this more subdued pattern can often work very well. Especially in the mid afternoon period when in the bright light fish can become shy. For some reason it just seems to work well this way.