Enrico Puglisi TPI Fibres

I'm a big fan of parachute style patterns. In fact, I've never fished a traditional collar hackled fly... maybe I'm missing something, but the low rider style of fly has such a strong appeal with proven fish-catching allure that I'm a die hard parachute-a-phile.

As a biology graduate, I spent almost three years understanding two key principles that influence almost all natural systems:

• Cost and benefit
• Cause and effect

This has reinforced my support for parachute patterns. A collar hackled fly sits high in the water, tip-toeing across the surface with the ability to take flight at a moments notice. It is fully formed, and free from the tension of the surface film. A parachute hackled fly sits low, even more so when tied emerger style with the abdomen hanging enticingly sub-surface.

So, let's adopt the mind of a wild, brown trout... food intake influences growth, survival and the ability to reproduce and pass on genetic code. For every rise to a fly that takes flight and escapes the trout, the return on energetic investment is diminished - higher cost for reduced benefit with the effect of less growth, caused by an inferior feeding strategy. So why not hedge your bets, and key on to emergers or newly emerged duns - your feeding hit rate will almost certainly improve, with a higher return on energetic investment and enhanced growth. Get this right, and the chances are your survival rate is improved and if your lucky enough to reproduce, the genetic code that drives this superior feeding strategy will be passed on to future generations.

Hatches are generally sparse on the lightly fished waters I hang out on. So selecting a pattern that actively encourages a productive feeding strategy makes sense. I'm not saying the high floating, collar hackled patterns won't catch trout, more that I like to appeal to the smart feeders rather than the reckless lunge feeders... but each to their own.

I also like parachute style flies because they float really, really well... so I invest more of my energy fishing, usually with a greater return in numbers of strikes, and if I'm lucky, fish brought to hand.

The case for parachute hackled flies is made, feel free to do your own thing, 'though ;)

A key element of a parachute dressing is the wing-post. Form and function in equal measure. For some time, my main consideration in colour selection was visibility on the water... my thinking has evolved during the last year. Of course, riding high above the surface, the main characteristic trout seem to key in to is silhouette. As long as the general profile of the wing-post is about right then job done. Why else would I have caught so many trout on a flouro-pink posted fly (this to aid visibility of small flies in low light)? Maybe trout just like pink...?
More recently, and in the interests if developing more imitative tying I've been reproducing the general colouration of natural wings with synthetic wing-posts. Niche Products supply siliconised polypropylene yarn in white, grey, black and dark brown. It's a fantastic material developed by Peter Smith and out-performs any other other polypropylene yarn I've tried (some of the stuff out there is just plain awful). Natural effects can be reproduced by blending different colours, the effect is pretty good - albeit it takes valuable time and the results are inevitably inconsistent. The trout don't give a damn, but I do (I think I may have a rare form of OCD, the pursuit of consistent proportion, aesthetics and tying neatness is at times, obsessional).

There is a solution, and it has already eased my OCD... a little :) The #22 olive emerger was part of the therapy...

Mick Hall and Enrico Puglisi have developed an amazing range of highly imitative, synthetic wing materials, called EP Trigger Point International fibres. I'll not describe the development of this material here, far batter you visit Mick's website and read for yourself... and enjoy the wealth of stunning macro photography and articles on offer. I love the site, and Mick is a cool guy. Bottom line is, Mick and Enrico have developed a broad range of highly realistic wing fibres, matching the hatch and creating those hard to imitate blends is now easy.

Thing is, Mick's based in Australia.... so how to source this wonder wing material? If you're UK based, it couldn't be easier. Check the tying supplies list on this blog, Phil Holding's Fly Tying Boutique is up there. Phil specialises in sourcing hard to find, innovative and at times just plain intersting and novel tying materials and supplies. I love what Phil does, not least the exemplary service he provides and a willingness to source materials from his extensive network of contacts across the globe - those of us in the UK have NEVER had it so good. Take a look at the Blue Ribbon Flies website, the legendary Montana based company and then consider the cost of P&P, import tax and all those other unexpected costs associated with importing materials from the US. Phil can supply genuine zelon for a very sensible price and significantly cheaper than a DIY transaction.

So, I contacted Phil and described an interest in finding an imatitive wing material with which to tie my parachute flies. I was looking for the same effect as blending two parts grey, one part white and a hint of black and dark brown Niche siliconised polypropylene yarn... "EP TPI Quicksilver should be a good match" was Phil's assurance. Next day, a packet arrived. First impression was, this is super-fine material so it looked ideal for tying micro-patterns. The colour is gloriously consistent and well, amazingly wing like! Each pack contains enough material to tie hundreds, if not over a thousand small flies. But does it float Phil? I tie a simple no-hackle dun with yarn, can I rely on good floatation properties to keep me fishing? Damn right, you can - each pack is treated with Watershed, and will take a light treatment of Dilly Wax if you need a floatation contingency plan.

Tying with the TPI fibres is a breeze. Supplied on a generous hank, I've selected multiple strands sized to #20 through #26 and knotted the mini-hank to make handling easy and tying faster, simply snip off 1"- 2" at a time. It's fine profile ensures full wings can be tied with a wonderfully sparse post to minimise bulk. Tied as a simple spent spinner on a TMC 518 #32, the lack of bulk ensures a well proportioned thorax.

And those colours, simply gorgeous! The range makes imatitive tying a breeze, with absolute consistency. Next on the shopping list is the March Brown in order to imitate the sepia coloured duns that emerge mid-season on the local streams, and Blue Winged Olive because, well who doesn't tie olives?