PMD Cripple

Hook: Tiemco 100 or 101 - standard dry fly hook

Size: 14 - 18

Thread: 8/0 brown

Tail: Pheasant tail

Body: Wrapped Pheasant tail

Rib: Fine gold wire

Thorax: Yellow Haretron dubbing

Wing: Coastal deer hair

Hackle: Barred light ginger

Notes: Every stream I've ever sampled during a Pale Morning Dun hatch revealed the same thing; that a huge number of PMDs are stillborns. Trout quickly ignore most of the healthy adults and key in on the helpless ones.

 

This fly pattern is excerpted from Fly Fishing Montana's Missouri River.