Here is the step by step for the Extended Biot Body Parachute Green Drake.
Thread: Black
Hook: I used a size 12 dry, but you can use whatever you'd like.
Tail: Moose Hair
Body: Olive Turkey Biot
Thorax: Olive Dry Fly Dubbing
Wing Post: Olive and Black Bestway Neer Hair Mixed (you can use whatever you prefer)
Hackle: Grizzley to match the hook size
Misc: Stripped hackle for extended body and super glue
First step as with tying any fly is getting the hook in your vise and a couple of wraps of thread on the hook shank.
Often when tying dry flies I like to be somewhat anatomically correct and will turn to a handy chart I have to determine the number of tails a family of flies will have. In this case I will be using 3 tails for the Ephemera family. (I know I'm pointing at the wrong one)
I then select three pieces of moose hair that will be tied in for the tail and secure it to the hook shank. After you have secured the moose hair to the hook shank, and are happy with the tail length, trim the excess hair. You want your tail to be at least the length of the body of the fly (not including the thorax).
Note that moose hair breaks very easily and you may want to substitute it for a more durable material so you can get some life out of the fly.
After you have found a suitable piece of hackle to use for the extended body, remove all the barbs in preperation to tie it on the hook shank. I usually use a piece of scrap hackle that is sitting in my cuttings bin.
Tie the piece of stripped hackle in with the thinnest end pointing toward bend of the hook. You'll notice that the tail end of the hackle is curved upwards. This can be achieved by pressing the hackle to your thumb nail and pulling it to curl it like you would do to curl ribbon for a gift.
Note that when you tie in the stripped hackle to leave enough space at the back of the hook to get the biot in between the stripped hackle and the hook shank.
For this demonstration I decided to use super glue to ease the tying process. You can just tie in the biot, but the super glue does make things much easier.
After placing a small drop of supper glue on the thinnest end of the biot, place it on the stripped piece of hackle and hold it in place until the glue begins to set. Make sure you glue the biot in with the clear side of the biot facing the eye of the hook. The thin ridge should be on the outside so that when it is wrapped you will get the proper looking segmentation of the body.
Once the glue has set and the biot is tacked in place I flip the hook around to make the wrapping easier.
I begin to build up the tail of the fly with the thread to achieve a proper taper of the body.
Once I am satisfied with the taper I have built up with thread I flip the hook back around to begin wrapping the biot body.
I then wrap the biot towards the eye of the hook. Take your time so you can get proper spacing to create good looking segmentation. Once you have completed the body trim the excess and secure the biot.
You are now ready to tie in the wing post material. Tie the material in half at the very end of the biot. This can be a bit tricky as the material will want to slip off the small bump on the hook shank. Once you have the material secured pull both ends up and create your wing post. (sorry for not taking a picture of this step, I also forgot to take a picture of tying the hackle in on the wing post). I then trim the wing post even to the desired length. Typically I will make it 3/4 the length of the body to include the wrapped portion of the wing post.
After I have selected the appropriate size hackle I will make 4-4 1/2 wraps with the hackle always ending on the back side. The reason for this is so that you can properly secure the hackle with 5-6 wraps of your thread.
Once you have secured the hackle to the hook shank trim all the excess material that is left over to get a clean working space so you can begin dubbing the thorax. When I dub the thorax I like to start with less then I think I will need and add more if necessary.
Once I am satisfied with the back half of the thorax I complete the front half and finish by creating a small head out of my tying thread. Whip finish and add some head cement if you so desire. Next just add water and proper presentation to catch come fish.
I want to apologize for leaving a couple photos out. Hopefully this will help some of you. Thanks again!
