The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
Callibaetis, Hendrickson, March Brown and 2 others
Medium - 3-5 Min
Coldwater
Standard variations include a biot tied body, or substituting in different flashier materials for the tail to imitate a trailing shuck of a mayfly nymph casing instead of a mayfly tail.
The most common variation is the famous parachute adams, which is the same materials just a parachute post wing style instead of thorax shaped.
Lastly, this fly can be tied in a variety of colors to imitate nearly any adult mayfly. Find the right size and color for your local waters or hatch you’re trying to match and tie up half a dozen in that specific color and half a dozen in the standard grey.
The Adams fly is a standard in fly fishing. It’s a impressionistic search pattern that imitates a ton of different mayfly species. The standard profile of this pattern is the template for dozens of other mayfly species patterns. Learning this pattern will help you tie any thorax style dry fly with greater ease including more difficult patterns like the royal wulff, humpy and more.
This pattern will imitate most mayflies and gray seems to be the best overall color, but mixing colors will help you fool more selective trout when you find that color mayfly on the water such as a BWO, Hex or PMD mayfly.
The best tip I can give you with this fly is mix and match the colors and sizes to match the mayflies in your area for your season. For however many you tie, tie half to match the color and size of the mayfly you’re imitating and the other half in a size smaller and in grey. Then fish both flies in tandem (2-fly dry fly rig) and if they refuse the more imitative color, they’ll often take the grey. This is because there are often more than one mayfly hatches happening during spring and summer months and the grey “search” version of this fly helps imitate the variety, while the exact color you tied imitates what you expect on the water.
It’s covering both bases with ease all under the same pattern.
| Regional Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Region: West
Brown Drake Sizes: #10 - #14
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Region: Northwest
Brown Drake Sizes: #10 - #14
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Region: East
Brown Drake Sizes: #10 - #14
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Region: Midwest
Brown Drake Sizes: #10 - #14
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| Regional Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Region: West
Callibaetis Sizes: #12 - #18
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Region: Northwest
Callibaetis Sizes: #12 - #18
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Region: East
Callibaetis Sizes: #12 - #18
|
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Region: Midwest
Callibaetis Sizes: #12 - #18
|
| Regional Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Region: East, Midwest
Hendrickson Sizes: #10 - #16
|
| Regional Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Region: East
Isonychia Sizes: #12 - #18
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Region: Southeast
Isonychia Sizes: #12 - #18
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Region: Midwest
Isonychia Sizes: #12 - #18
|
| Regional Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Region: West, East
March Brown Sizes: #10 - #14
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Region: Northwest
March Brown Sizes: #10 - #14
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Region: Midwest
March Brown Sizes: #10 - #14
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Copyright © 2003 – 2025 MidCurrent LLC, All Rights Reserved.