Extended body parachute blue wing olive.

Materials needed:
Hook - Thin wire dry fly hook.  I'm using a TMC 206BL size #18
Thread - Gray 8/0 UNI-thread
Parachute wing - I'm using dun colored Hi-Float fibers, but antron yarn, calf tail, etc. can also be used.
Hackle - Medium dun hackle one size larger than your hook.
Body - BWO dubbing with an extended mayfly body shown HERE.

Put your hook in your vise and start your thread.

Tie in some parachute wing material.

Stand up your parachute, and build a post with your thread.

Get your parachute exactly where you want it, and put a drop of head cement on the post to hold it in place.









Tie in your hackle (shiny/convex side facing you) with a few wraps around the feather base, and the hook shank.

I always trim the fibers from the bottom of the feather instead of stripping.  It stops the feather from rotating.







Wrap your thread around the feather, and the post tightly.

This will hold your feather straight up and down as shown.








Tie in your extended body about an eye's length behind the parachute post.











Trim the butt end of the body, and tightly secure your thread over the section you just trimmed.

You can apply Zap-a-Gap to the tie in point if you like, but if you secure it tightly enough, the body shouldn't rotate at all.







Put a little dubbing on your thread, and blend the extended body up to the parachute post.

Put your thread just in front of the parachute post.

Wrap 3-4 wraps of hackle around the parachute post.

Tie off your hackle against the hook shank.












Put some dubbing on your thread, preen back the hackle fibers, and wrap your dubbed thread to build the head of your fly.














Whip finish and trim your thread.

I color my thread with an olive Sharpie marker.

 Trim your parachute wing.

Making extended mayfly bodies.

There are many different ways to make extended mayfly bodies.  I've tried everything from deer hair, to porcupine quills.  My main issue with these other methods, is that it's hard to make the bodies the right size.

This method is very similar to another method that uses a needle (found in the Fly Tier's Bench side Reference) with one major difference.  Silicone.  Silicone will float much better than dubbing coated in head cement.

The idea is that since the body is tied on a needle, once you take it off, it leaves an open cavity inside the body which traps air and helps keep your fly floating.

Materials needed:
Needle - A regular sewing needle.
Silicone - Clear drying, waterproof
Dubbing - Any standard dry fly dubbing.  I'm using superfine blue wing olive dry fly dubbing.
Mayfly tailing material - I'm using dun colored mayfly tail fibbets.

You will also need either an electric drill, or a true rotary vise (rotates the fly in-line).

 Put your needle in your drill.

Put a thin coat of silicone on the needle.

Put your tailing material on the needle.  The silicone will hold it in place.

Take a small wisp of dubbing, start rotating your drill/vise, and touch the wisp of dubbing to the rotating needle.  This will wrap your dubbing around the needle.  Add more dubbing as needed.  Build a slight taper as shown.

Make sure your tailing material is separated as shown.











Remove the body from the needle by sliding it off the end.

Put a little bend in the body, and set it aside to dry.

Light Cahill

Material's needed:
Hook:  Standard dry fly hook size #12-18.
Thread:  White or cream 8/0 UNI-thread.
Tail:  White or cream hackle fibers.
Body:  White or cream superfine dry fly dubbing.
Wings:  Wood duck flank feather.
Hackle:  White or cream dry fly hackle.

Secure your hook in your vise.

Start your thread just behind the eye.

Measure your wings.  They should equal the length of the hook shank.

Tie the wood duck feather securely to the top of the hook shank.

Trim the butt ends of the feather.

Cover any remaining butt ends with tight thread wraps.

Lift the feather straight up, and wrap a few tight wraps of thread in front to hold the feather in place.

Separate the feather into 2 equal wings. Tie them in place with a few figure eight wraps.

Wrap two wraps of thread around the base of each individual wing.

Wrap your thread to the back of the hook shank.

Measure your tail to the length of the hook shank, and tie it in with 2 wraps of thread.

Trim the butt ends of the tail just behind the wings.

Apply a small amount of dubbing to your thread.












Wrap your dubbed thread forward building a tapered body.

Select a cream hackle feather, trim the fibers off the base of the feather.  If you strip the fibers off, the feather will rotate when you tie it in.

Strip a few fibers off the bottom side (shiney/convex side facing you) of the feather as shown.

Tie in your hackle with the shiny/convex side facing you.

Wrap your thread to just behind the eye of the hook.

Wrap 3 wraps of hackle behind the wing, and 3 wraps of hackle in front of the wing.

Tie off the hackle with your thread, and trim off the hackle tip.

Whip finish, trim your thread, and apply head cement.