Parachute BWO
The Parachute BWO is the essential pattern for matching the blue-winged olive hatch — the most important and widespread mayfly hatch in North American trout fishing. The parachute configuration rides flush in the film while keeping the fly visible to the angler. Fish it on 5X or 6X during hatches that run from late September through November and again in March and April. Effective on virtually every trout stream in North America.
- Type
- dry fly (Mayfly)
- Hook sizes
- #16–22
- Target species
- trout
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Best seasons
- spring, fall
Materials
- hook: Dry fly hook #16–22
- thread: Olive 10/0
- tail: Dun hackle fibers, split
- body: Olive Superfine or gray-olive dubbing
- post: White or chartreuse poly yarn
- hackle: Blue dun, parachute style
Tying steps
- Mount a size 16–22 hook; start olive thread and tie in 3–4 dun hackle fibers as split tail.
- Dub a slim olive-gray body to the 3/4 mark.
- Tie in a white or chartreuse poly yarn post upright; make 5–6 base wraps to stand it firmly.
- Attach a dun hackle feather at the post base.
- Wind 5–6 parachute turns of hackle around the post, working downward.
- Capture hackle tips with thread below the post; build a neat head.
- Whip finish with figure-eight under the wing; cement.
- Apply a micro-drop of head cement to the thread head; avoid getting cement on the poly yarn post or parachute hackle.