User Friendly Green Drake 11/20/2021 Photo Album

I continued my count of green drake flies in my fly boxes and storage containers, and I determined that I could use additional user friendly green drakes to replenish my supply. For additional background information on the user friendly green drake please click on my post of 02/12/2021. This report contains a link to additional information, and if you search on line on user friendly, you can find a YouTube video of Andrew Grillos, the creator of this pattern, demonstrating the tying steps.

Opposite Side

During 2021 I had some sporadic success with the user friendly version of the western green drake; however, the parachute green drake and comparadun green drake continued to outperform the newest imitation in my fly box. I tend to test the user friendly, when I grow weary of drying and applying floatant to the parachute and comparadun. The user friendly contains a strip of foam as a covering over the length of the fly, and this translates to more buoyancy.

Four Legless User Friendlies

With an apology to Andrew Grillos, I made a few modifications to his pattern for the four that I tied recently. Several sessions this summer taught me that a moose mane tail was popular with the stream feeders, so I replaced the microfibbet tail of the official pattern with moose mane. In an attempt for more authenticity, I eliminated the rubber legs and tied the four new versions without legs. I retained the foam back for buoyancy and cut the hackle off flush with the thorax, another significant characteristic of the original user friendly. I am anxious to give these new user friendly green drakes a spin in 2022.