Rene Harrop’s soft-hackle Green Drake is a killing pattern on the Henrys Fork and wherever else this mayfly is found. Yet, the first time I saw this fly I was skeptical. The color looked right, but the pattern seemed too sparse overall, the body too thin — the natural nymph being a fairly robust teardrop-shaped clinger type. But my partner was catching red bands on it while I noticeably lagged fishing a chubby rendition of the nymph, so I had to try it.
After switching and landing a few trout, I slowed down to have a look at Harrop’s Drake. Standing in the stream holding the tippet, I submerged the fly and studied it in the water. The elements of good wet fly design became clear. When the hackle flows back over the thorax, it creates the illusion of body mass and the whole thing becomes unitized, taking on the natural’s wide-headed teardrop shape and also a nuanced coloration. An American descendant of the Yorkshire North-Country flies, Harrop’s Drake relies on ancient principles of successful soft-hackle patterns: simplicity, motion, abstract obfuscation. Harrop, following the example of Skues, Leisenring, and Hidy, included a thorax in his design, emphasizing profile, an important design element not often seen in the older North-Country “hackle flies” or “spiders” meant to represent the smaller mayflies of the Yorkshire freestones. The design serves to simulate a fairly large mayfly, yet with very little bulk to influence its drift. It penetrates the surface immediately, then hovers and tracks well. Fished in the upper water column with a floating line, the pattern is taken for an emerging nymph, cripple, or drowned adult.
Rene Harrop’s Green Drake Emerger is an elegant and reliable wet-fly pattern fished upstream, dead-drift, or swung. It is a fine pattern for prospecting when there is no apparent surface action, and during an evening hatch it will often outperform a Green Drake dry fly.
Hook: TMC 200R, size 6-12 (most often, I tie these on a size 10 hook)
Thread: Black UNI 8/0 (yellow or olive are also appropriate)
Hackle: Olive grizzly hen fronted with one turn of black hen
Tail: Lemon wood duck flank fibers
Abdomen: Olive turkey biot (apply a coat of head cement and allow it a moment to tack prior to winding the biot)
Thorax: Olive dubbing with a touch of gray rabbit
