Hairwing Dun

Rene Harrop

Rene Harrop

Hairwing Dun

Rene Harrop designed the Hairwing Dun during the 1980’s while he fished the Firehole River. Mayflies were hatching and he didn’t have a good imitation. He selected an Elk Hair Caddis, clipped a few fibers, and found that the modifications allowed him to start catching some fish. Rene is a renowned fly designer and taking this experience back to his fly tying desk, he tried some additional modifications from the Elk Hair Caddis.

Rene modified the pattern with split tails, clipping the bottom of the hackle and covering only the thorax portion of the body with the hackle. He shortened the wing and tilted the wing upward. By changing the hook size, dubbing coloration, hackle, and wing material, he could adapt this pattern to a number of mayflies such as the Blue Wing Olive, Brown Drake, Adams, Hendrickson-Quill Gordon, Light Cahill, Pale Morning Dun, and Trico. The Western Green Drake was also in the mix. Currently, Rene tends to tie this pattern using Turkey Biots for the abdomen in a number of colorations, keeping the abdomen thin and sleek with notable segmentation.

Variations

Twilight Hairwing Dun, Winter Baetis
Twilight Hairwing Dun, Winter Baetis

Twilight Hairwing Dun, Winter Baetis

Hook Tiemco 100 size #18-20
Thread Uni-thread 8/0 Tan
Body Blue Quill Body
Thorax BWO Superfine
Tail Medium Blue Dun Spade Hackle
Wing Elk Hair
Overwing Orange Poly Yarn
Hackle Blue Dun Rooster