AGOSTINO RONCALLO’S PARACHUTE FLY METHOD
The various methods of tying durable parachute patterns have advantages and weaknesses. The advantages, in my opinion, are that the hackle is placed over the thorax, allowing the fish to see perfectly the shape and the body of the insect imitation lying on the surface, closely resembling the posture of the natural dun.
The disadvantage is that the hackle is often wrapped around wings or a chenille post that does not provide a sturdy base for mounting.
For years I tried to improve the parachute and although I got some fairly good results, I must admit that I was beginning to fear not being able to reach my goal until the day I saw Alba, the daughter of my nephew Lorenzo, playing with synthetic cards made of a kind of colored mat on which they can sit and play.
For some time I had hoped to find stuff like this and I immediately went to a toy store where I bought the game.
Despite knowing and using foam for years, I confess that this discovery stimulated my creativity.
Surely it was the more compact material and that inspired me to get results that until then I had not imagined possible with ordinary foam.
Since these cards are a centimeter thick, using a ruler and a scalpel I cut strips the exact thickness I needed, depending on usage.
Using a strip of material of the children's game solved the problem of providing a solid base for winding the parachute hackle and created what I call "my parachute"
DRESSING
1) On a light hook, fix the tails of hackle fibers.
2) Tie in a quill of a barbed peacock eye
3) Wrap the quill around a hook to form the abdomen.
4) Tie in the hackle next to the abdomen.
5) In the mid-abdomen and between the eye of the hook, tie in your strip of foam. The effect of the fastening the strip takes the form of a ‘V’.
6) At the same time, tie in synthetic sparkle synthetic fibers for the wing. Add dubbing to the thread.
7) With the dubbing, form the thorax of the fly.
8) Wrap the hackle around the V of foam then tie it off.
9) Put in the final knot and cut the excess of V from the synthetic foam.
10) Trim the excess wing fibers and the fly is finished.
The strip of synthetic material, as well as providing as a solid base around which you wrap the hackle, allows a better distribution of barbs in the horizontal plane and prevents some of them facing upwards. It also prevents the hackle from coming loose during fishing.
It is not essential to use the quality hackles, and since it only takes a few wraps to form the parachute, you get a very transparent imitation.
The strip of synthetic foam is effective even when you replace hackle with a dubbing loop of hare hare’s fur or other suitable material.
With a dubbing loop I get good ‘skating’ imitations on the surface and almost all my sedge parachutes are built with hare’s fur dubbing.
This imitation was a great success among the Italian fly-fishers and is known in Europe and USA.
I hope also it is a success for South African fly fishers.
OTHER PARACHUTE PATTERNS BY AGOSTINO RONCALLO
Agostino Roncallo SALUTE!
