EDUCATION: ONLINE LESSONS:
LESSON 14

 The Light Cahill Parachute
from Skip Morris' book, "Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple, 1992"

The original Light Cahill existed well before the Light Cahill Parachute; this is the case with many of the parachute flies. The term "parachute" comes from the manner in which the hackle is wound: horizontally, above the hook, truly creating a sort of parachute appearance and effect. The parachute-style fly was designed to give better visibility to the angler in bad-light situations with small dry flies.

Most dry flies can be tied parachute style. The Light Cahill is a good example of typical parachute adaptation - the original pair of wings is replaced with a single hair wing which is set slightly farther forward; all of which is to accommodate the hackle. However, I have seen parachutes with almost every type of wing imaginable: duck-quill sections, poly yarn, mallard-breast feathers cut to wing shape - anything that will provide an adequate foundation for the hackle. There are really no hard rules about parachutes.

The benefits of the parachute style are that the position of the hackle really helps the fly alight upright and that the hackle fibers radiate around the thorax as do the legs of most trout-stream insects. Parachutes are a bit tricky to tie, but only a bit, and they are worth the effort. The Light Cahill Parachute is a mayfly imitation. Fish it dead drift.


LIGHT CAHILL PARACHUTE

HOOK: Standard dry fly, sizes 18 to 10.
THREAD: 8/0 or 6/0, tan.
WING: A single bunch of white calf tail. TAIL: Ginger hackle fibers. HACKLE: Ginger BODY: Badger underfur.


Tying In The Wing, Tail and Hackle
Select and size a No. 12 dry-fly hackle. Start the thread about 1/16 inch back from the eye of a size 12 dry-fly hook (the hook shown is a Partridge Grey Shadow model GRS3A). Wrap the thread to just short of mid-shank, and then wrap it forward to just past (not just short of, as with the Adams) the middle of the first thread layer. Comb and stack a bunch of calf tail. Measure the calf tail against the hook (some tiers prefer a slightly shorter-than-usual wing on parachute flies). Tie in the calf tail using the pinch; add several tight securing turns of thread. Trim the hair butts at an angle.

Lift the wing firmly upright, and then crease it with a firm press from your right-hand thumbnail (see "Setting The Wings Upright" under "The Gray Wulfe"). Wrap up the base of the hair wing with light-tension thread turns; the thread wraps should be counter clockwise. When the thread is at least 1/16 inch up the wing, wind the thread back down the wing. Draw the thread sharply and firmly back to really hold the wing upright, and then secure the thread in several tight turns (see "Wood Duck Wings" under "The Adams"); repeat this step if required to really set the wing upright.

Prepare the hackle and then hold it against the thread-wound base of the wings; the hackle should be vertical, on the near side of the hook, curve toward you, bare stem ending just past the top of the thread wraps on the wing. Tie the hackle onto the wing base using a light turn around the wing and hackle stem only, instead of around the shank as usual. Wrap the thread, under more tension this time, up the base of the wing, securing the hackle at the same time. Wind the thread back down to the shank. You now have a solid foundation for the winding of the hackle. Draw the remaining hackle-stem butt so that it lies along the shank. Wrap the thread down the shank and butt 1/16 to 1/8 inch, add a few securing thread turns and trim the hackle stem.

Measure and then tie in the tails just as you did for the Adams, except that these tails are all one color and therefore are all mounted with one pinch.

Tying In The Wing, Tail and Hackle - Problems, Solutions, And Suggestions
  1. A thorough combing really helps the stacking of kinky calf-tail fibers. You can comb it on the hide, or after it has been cut.

  2. Really set the wing upright; a firm thumbnail crease and solid thread support will do it. The angle of the wing will determine the angle of the parachute hackle later - if the wing tips sit forward then so will the hackle, but a vertical wing will create a neatly horizontal hackle.

  3. Some tiers tie the hackle onto the shank, and then wind it up and then back down the wing. But to me this is a shortcut ‹ winding the hackle stem onto the wing adds support, and rather than crisscrossing itself as it would if tied in only at the shank, the hackle winds neatly in consecutive turns down the wing. If this doesn't quite make sense now, it will soon - the point is that I request that you give my approach a chance before you let someone else talk you into an "easier way."

  4. Grasp the wing firmly, as needed, to support it as you tighten the thread around it.

  5. You can hold the wing throughout the wrapping of its base. Simply drop the bobbin down the far side after each turn, and then reach around from behind the wing to retrieve the bobbin for the next turn. Eventually, however, you will find that the less you hold the wing, the faster you'll complete this step.

  6. The ideal way to create a parachute wing and prepare its base for the hackle (at least the best way I've found) is to wrap the first layer of thread up the wings base under light tension (this gathers the fibers); the next layer goes back down under more tension; from here each layer of thread can be tighter than the previous one because every layer (and the hackle's stem) adds stiffness - this way, you may never have to hold the wing as you thread wrap it.

  7. For insurance that your wing won't later roll to one side, set it upright with the thread tightly drawn back and secured on one side of the hook, and then repeat this with the thread drawn back and secured on the other side of the hook. It is best to use the side that reverses thread-winding direction first, so that the next side reestablishes the original direction.
Dubbing And Hackling
Snip some cream-colored badger fur from its hide. Hold the tips of the guard hairs firmly, and then draw out the soft fuzz from around the cut ends of the hairs; this fuzz will be your dubbing. Wax the thread, if you choose, and then spin on the dubbing and dub up the shank to 1/16 inch behind the eye. This, of course, means that you will dub in front of the wing a bit.

Lock the tip of the hackle in your hackle pliers. Wrap the hackle counterclockwise in close turns down the thread-wrapped base of the wing. When the hackle reaches the body (about four to six turns of hackle), lower the pliers down the far side of the shank and let them hang.

Place your left-hand thumb, first, and second fingers around the front of the hackle and draw the fibers up and back from the head area in a sort of modified triangle. Secure the hackle tip with tight thread turns. Release the bobbin from your right hand, take up the scissors in it and snip off the hackle's tip. Regrasp the bobbin in your right hand and create a thread head. Add a triple whip finish. Coat the head with cement. Later, when the cement is fully hardened, you can tug the hackle and wing back to their original position (the modified triangle leaves the hackle and wing kicked back).

Dubbing And Hackling - Problems, Solutions and Suggestions
  1. An extra turn or two of the dubbing, angled from the front of the wing back and then from behind the wing forward helps to cover the lower sides of the wing.

  2. Feel free to grasp the wing as needed for support as you wrap the hackle. It can help to grasp the wing after each turn as you pull the hackle snug, although ideally you need never support the wing after it's set upright, and in fact this goal is quite obtainable.

  3. Keep the hackle turns next to one another; spreading them out allows for less turns of hackle.

  4. When you use the modified triangle, don't use excessive force or you might slide the hackle off the wing - especially if the hackle's tip is not yet fully secured under a thread-head.

  5. When adding the whip finish, it helps to slip the loop low over the thread-head, beneath the hackles.
1. Lay down a double thread layer; then cut, comb, stack, measure and tie in a bunch of calf tail.
2. Pull the hair back and crease it upright with your thumbnail.
3. Secure the hair wing's upright position with thread; then wrap thread up and down the base of the wing.
4. Prepare and then tie in a hackle against the base of the wing. Run the thread up and down the wing's base again, covering the hackle stem as well.
5. Draw the stem of the hackle back along the shank; secure the stem with thread, trim it, and cover its cut end and the hair buts with thread.
6. Dub from the bend to just in front of the wing.
7. Wrap the hackle down the thread-wrapped base of the wing in close, consecutive turns. When you can wrap the hackle no farther, let your hackle pliers hang on the far side of the hook in front of the wing.
8. Draw back the hackle fibers in a modified triangle, and secure the hackle's tip with tight thread turns. Release the bobbin, trim the hackle's tip, build a thread head, add a triple whip finish, coat the head with head cement.
9. Once the head cement is hard, you can tug the wing and hackle back into shape.
10. Note how the hackle fibers radiate from the wing on the finished parachute.



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