Ugly Mayfly
This must rate as about the ugliest mayfly pattern ever! This is not a picture postcard, naturalistic, breathing, lifelike creation as most of the big mayflies you normally see. But boy this one is one hell of a fish catcher. As you might know we have quite a few chalk streams here in Southern Germany with big, famous hatches of big mayflies. It is here that this fly proved its effectiveness time and time again.
My friends and I have really given a lot of patterns at different waters a try because the fish can be quite selective. We have tried everything from e.g. Oliver Edwards, Gerhard Laible and other impressionistic and classic patterns etc. but this one really stood out anywhere we were fortunate enough to experience this wonderful hatch.
White was the most effective colour so far, although we have tried to copy the more yellow-like colour of the naturals. You might want to try this out or adjust the colour to your needs.The helicopter effect of most of these big flies is not too bad with this one either if you try to match the CDC-wings.
An easy ty too so if you can stand its uglyness you might want to give it a try.
Tying instructions:
- Make your normal thread base down about 2/3rds of the hook shank and wind on the white foam there with a few not too tight threads (otherwise you will cut the foam)
- Clip of the end of the foam to a taper to make it neater (again this didn’t seem to be of importance, but you just can’t stand a fly that looks like a block of styrofoam)
- Wind the foam around the hook shank to form the body and ty of near the hook eye.
- Tie in two CDC feathers and make them stand upright by winding thread in front of them. you might want to separate them with figure eight wraps.
- Now you could add a parachute hackle or some dubbing to form a nice head but again the fly is just as effective if you just finish it as it is.