If I had to go the rest of my life only fishing one dry fly, the choice would be very easy. The Paranymph, developed by Tom Baltz, combines simplicity, effectiveness and originality all into what I consider to be the ultimate mayfly imitation for almost any hatch or situation. I’ve fished this fly across the country in just about every dry fly scenario you could imagine. Selective spring creek browns, high altitude cutthroat, pressured tailwaters, brook trout streams, raging freestones, stillwater…the list goes on. Anywhere that fish rise to mayflies, the paranymph has a role. There isn’t anything this fly has that you can’t find in other patterns, but it combines everything I'm looking for in an elegant and effective way. Here’s what I like about it…
High Vis
The visibility of the calf body hair post is fantastic even in smaller sizes. Though I used to be skeptical about the necessity of using calf body hair instead of synthetic post material, I’ve since become a believer. The calf body hair is more opaque than something like parapost. Though much more challenging to tie in, it allows less light to pass through the material and is far more visible in a variety of conditions. Orange is the primary color, but yellow and black have their place as well. Yellow works well in low light situations like evenings, mornings and cloudy days. Black is great for the one off situation where glare is at its worst and you just need a silhouette to pick out. The fish also do not seem to be put down by the post either. Whether they see it or notice it is up for debate, but experience largely tells me that most fish don’t care. In fact, it may even be a positive in many scenarios in the same way a hotspot works for a nymph.
During a cloudy early season BWO hatch, the yellow post was the ticket for the low light conditions.
Low Riding
The grizzly hackle is tied into this pattern so that the tips angle up (shiny side down). Hackle is concave, so the fibers will never truly lay flat, though you can give the illusion if desired. When the fibers point down, the fly rides a little higher, and the opposite is true when the fibers point up. This characteristic is one of the key elements in this fly’s effectiveness in convincing fish to eat. Trout love to capitalize on bugs that are stuck in the film, crippled, and just generally lower floating. Very high floating dries have their place, but time and time again, low riding patterns produce better in most situations. One tip that Tom taught me is to only apply floatant to the post and hackle, while taking a pinch of water and saturating the dubbing. I’ve found this to be a very effective trick when your first presentation matters for the pickiest fish, and you think a partially submerged mayfly is what they are keying in on.
Notice how the hackle fibers angle up. This helps the fly ride lower in the surface film.
Impressionistic
The paranymph was designed to imitate an emerging mayfly nymph stuck in the surface film. It was never intended to imitate a particular hatch like a sulphur or a hendrickson. Because of this, it keeps a general enough format that fish take this fly for a number of different emergences.The guard hairs in the dubbing give the impression of legs and gills, the Z-lon shuck makes the fly look more crippled and helpless, and the hackle adds movement. Together, this recipe simply works. For the same reasons a Walt's Worm or a Pheasant Tail works for many nymphs, this pattern covers many different bugs. You could choose to tie the pattern in different colors, but I’m always surprised at how well the hare’s mask grey body works even during emergences of sulphurs and other lighter colored mayflies. Remember, despite what the adults look like, many nymphs are very dark, and that factors into the success of the original color scheme that Tom ties.
The paranymph can work for so many may flies. Here Tom shows off a Montana brown that took the paranymph for a PMD.
I can remember a particular day on Penns Creek where I used the paranymph to imitate a handful of different mayflies by simply changing the size and nothing else. Throughout the day, I saw olives, male and female Hendricksons emerging, and Hendrickson spinners. The fish were distinctly keyed in on each of these insects at different times of the day, and all I had to do was shuffle through paranymphs sized 18 through 12 to find success in each of these situations. Patterns like this embody what I’m looking for when filling my boxes. Many anglers overfill their boxes with patterns representing each particular mayfly they may encounter, but a versatile fly like this simplifies choice without sacrificing success.
Lots of practice in that puck…
Floatability
Though this pattern isn’t meant to ride very high, it does maintain a good amount of buoyancy. A good metric of assessing dry fly floatability is noting how well it floats after catching a few fish or after many casts. After pinching the fly dry and using a few false casts to air it out, you should not see it continue to sink. Nobody wants to use up a whole canister of desiccant in a day of fishing. Early on when I experimented tying this pattern, it was apparent how much better Tom’s ties floated than my own attempts. After spending some time with Tom getting some tying tips and observing his process, a big takeaway was how little dubbing he uses. More dubbing absorbs more water, and thus adds weight and causes a fly to sink. Just enough dubbing to cover the thread is really all you need, and any more is somewhat of a mistake. This takes practice but if executed well makes this pattern much more user friendly.
Less dubbing helps floatation. In the smaller sizes like these 18’s, its especially important to keep the dubbing to a minimum. Here there is just enought dubbing to cover the thread, but because of the guard hairs and dubbing blend, there is plenty of profile.
It’s not just me.
Further proof of this fly’s effectiveness is its presence in the boxes of almost all of our trout guides. Especially if you fish with Tom, Eric, Neil, Alex or myself, expect to see a little grey dry fly with an orange post on top tied onto your leader if fish start working on the surface. You can also find it in the bins of fly shops throughout the country, and in the boxes of some of the legends of our sport. If you want to pare down the dry flies you carry, this pattern should be at the top of your list. You can buy these flies from Tom directly, or tie a few yourself by using the recipe below. This is Tom’s original recipe, but plenty of substitutions can be made while still maintaining effectiveness.
Recipe
Hook: Daiichi model 1180, sizes 12, 14. Orvis Big Eye (Daiichi model 1100) in sizes 16-20.
(Other Options: TMC 100, TMC 921)
Thread: Danville’s 6/0 pre-waxed, Lt. Olive.
Post: Fluorescent Orange or Lemon Yellow calf body hair.
Hackle: Grizzly, wound parachute style. Shiny side down.
Dubbing: Natural Hares Mask or Similar dubbing blend with guard hairs
Tail: Olive Brown Z-Lon, 2/3 body length. Use 2/3 width of strand on sz. 12-14, 1/2 width of strand on sz. 16-18, 1/3 width of strand on sz. 20.
Rotating hackle pliers like this are key to tie this pattern.
The bugs are ramping up so be sure to tie up some paranymphs for the spring season. Please feel free to reach out with your tying questions or if you want to get on the water with one of us this season. We are now in peak season so book soon to get prime dates!
Have fun out there!!!
Frank Landis
franklandisflyfishing@gmail.com
Instagram: frankflyfishes