The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Dry

The Freddy

Insect Species Icon Golden Stonefly, Salmonfly, Skwala Stone and 2 others
Difficulty Icon Easy - 10-15 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater, Warmwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Streamer/nymph 2x heavy 3x long down eye hook size #10
  • Thread: UTC 140 denier tan
  • Body: Wapsi all purpose rabbit dubbing tan
  • Foam: Craft foam 2mm light and dark brown and furry foam crab tan held together by Super 77 multi purpose adhesive, and cut with chernobyl shaped foam cutters
  • Legs: Medium round rubber legs
  • Post: Superfly s-lon orange
  • Hook: Any long wire hook will work, down-eye preferred.
  • Thread: Either 6/0 or 140 denier thread. Anything too small will break and anything larger will cut through the foam.
  • Body: This part is not necessary, but it helps lock the foam down. Match the dubbing to the bottom layer of fuzzy foam.
  • Foam: These foam sheets have no substitute, glue these together with a low potency glue to not melt the foam layers.
  • Legs: Use your favorite legs!
  • Post: Orange antron, McFlyon, or polypropelene are great substitutes.

With few materials already, the only thing to do to change up this fly is to add materials. For a fly that will float even more, try adding a little bit of dry fly hackle to the body before adding the foam, similar to a cherobyl ant. Try adding a white propylene wing for added realism before tying in the post!

Are you tired of your terrestrial flies sinking? Look no further. With three layers of foam and dry fly dubbing along the hook, this fly will float all day long under some serious fish abuse. This also means you can float some pretty heavy droppers under this without having to worry about the fly struggling to stay afloat.

Fish this as you would any other hopper pattern. Either as a single dry in late summer time, or as the dry in your dry dropper system. If it is windy while fishing, don’t be afraid to slap the fly down on the surface of the water to get the attention of any fish looking for a struggling grasshopper in the wind.

Golden Stonefly

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: Northwest
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: East
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: Midwest
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16

Green Stone

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, Midwest
Green Stone
Sizes: #12 - #18

Hopper

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
Hopper
Sizes: #6 - #16

Salmonfly

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Salmonfly
Sizes: #6 - #14

Skwala Stone

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Skwala Stone
Sizes: #12 - #16

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and all the FlyBrary Content.