Anglers are generally successfdul in catching trout during the prime times of the PMD seaso9n in early June. As the season progresses into July, life for the angler becomes a greater challenge. The rises are fewer and the fish are pickier.
On Juky 4, one year, I was on DePuys Spring Creek, sharing the stream with another angler who preceded my arrival., his rod arced over landing a fish. took up a position a couple hundred feet below him. There were a few rising fish but all refused my offerings. Meanwhile the angler above me was into one fish after another. Swallowing my pride I waded ashore and moved upstream to his location and commented to him on his astonishing series of catches. He replied that it was all due to the particular type of PMD he was using.
He was kind enough to wade over to show me the fly. It was a no-hackle PMD tied by a well[known tier, Renee Harrop. Its main characteristic was the duck quill wings set low and back as shown in the illustration below. He generously gave me one, which I immediately tied on and proceeded to destroy with rough casting……the wings of the fly are very fragile…casting has to be very gentle to maintain the fly.
On returning home, a first priority was to tie some of these no-hackle PMDs, I quickly learned that tying in those wings so that they are the right size and shape and aligned was extremely difficult.
These flies are seldom stocked in fly shops. I found one, place, Mike Lawson’s Henry Fork’s Anglers in Idaho who offers them and notes that it makes more sense to buy the flies than to tie them yourself. In any case, I will now have these in my fly box, one way ore the other.