Here is another mayfly pattern, that I tie and use regularly. Its body is made of foam, which makes it almost unsinkable… and it catches fish! I caught some of my biggest dryfly browns on this pattern.

Here is what you need:

  • Hook Partridge Klinkhamer #12
  • Thread: Unithread 6/0 brown
  • Body: foam white in 2mm (better is 1mm!), yellow and brown markers
  • Tail: spinner tails natural grizzly
  • Wing: deerhair
  • Parachute hackle: Rooster saddle olive
  • Thorax: SLF Squirrel Spikey Dubbing brown

First you need to tie a foam body, as has been used in a great variety of flies, from grasshoppers, to longlegs and also for mayflies. See for example here click. I use white foam, as our mayflies here are rather light in color. In other regions I have seen flies that rather yellow or olive, for imitations of these you can use foam in the respective colors.

1. As a first step, the prepared body can be colored with markers.
2. The body is then tied to the hook and secured with a drop of superglue.
3. Tie in the deerhair for the wing.
4. A rooster hackle is tied in and the thorax wrapped in some dubbing.
5. The hackle is wound around the stem of the wing, tie off, DONE.