About the Unsinkable Dry Fly:
All patterns and styles evolve, the unsinkable dry fly is an example of natural progression. Over the last five years many anglers have experienced the virtues of the popper hopper and how the disturbance it causes in the form of a “pop” when stripped sharply can literally pull fish to the cast – when imitating large terrestrials such as daddies or hawthorn flies then the popper hopper has few equals.
However it is a large pattern and the majority of the dressing sits subsurface – so it doesn’t create the correct profile when imitating buzzers or olives – you will often get refusals in the form of swirls or half-hearted takes from feeding trout. To imitate these insects correctly you want a pattern that lies flat on the surface without sitting too high, or it won’t get taken confidently.
The Unsinkable Dry is a much smaller, delicate pattern that lies flat in the surface film and incorporates the best aspects of the popper hopper. The small foam lip will still cause some disturbance when stripped, and the foam means that anglers don’t need to use floatant that invariably gets onto your leader and fingers. The soft hen hackle adds to the pattern as it gives movement and improves the silhouette with a leggy appearance. When fish are feeding in the surface layers, this pattern is a magnet and it has accounted for many of fish over 4lb from Grafham, Rutland, Chew and Draycote in the last 12 months.
Normally I fish two on a 13ft 8lb fluorocarbon leader. I tend to cast at fish that are rising close to the boat, retrieve with three to four 2ft long pulls to straighten the line and to cause a little disturbance, then simply hang on. In flat calms I tend to fish the patterns static for 20 seconds after the initial pulls before an ultra-slow figure of eight back – just creasing the surface. In a ripple a slow figure of eight is all that is needed.
View the Fulling Mill Dry Fly range
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