Many western trout anglers have identified their "ah-ha!" fly fishing
moment as the first time they were fortunate enough to witness a thick
mating swarm of giant green drake mayflies. The sky is thick with
flittering bugs, and wily trout recognize these swarms as feeding
bonanzas. If you have the right spinner imitation in your fly box, the
day can turn truly epic in a flash.
Mercer's Profile Spinner Brown Drake is a wildly innovative and
extremely effective imitation of a Green Drake mayfly in the spinner
life stage. This unique fly pattern sports long tails, a beefy
segmented abdomen, spent wings,
helicopter blades of darkly colored stiff hackle, and a tuft of bright
orange fibers for high visibility in rough water. If you want to turn
some big fish, toss it in a favorite lazy susan eddy after the action
gets underway!
Specifications:
- This fly pattern was developed by creative fly tyer, Mike Mercer
- An innovative fly pattern sporting long tails, a beefy segmented abdomen, spent wings, helicopter blades of darkly colored stiff hackle, and a tuft of bright orange fibers for high visibility in rough water
- Green Drake imitation in the spinner life stage
- Use as a realistic imitation when matching the hatch during a spinner fall
- Fish on a dead drift in all types of water; slow-moving eddys can be extremely productive during and after a spinner fall
- Best results early in the morning or later in the evening
- Minimize surface commotion in clear or shallow water by using long leaders and light tippet
- Giving the fly a few twitches during the drift can simulate the struggle of a spent insect and attract opportunistic trout
- When imitating a drowned spinner, it's often useful to use a nymphing strategy with a strike indicator and a short leader
- SIZE 12
When and Where to Fish Mercer's Profile Spinner Brown Drake
This mayfly spinner can be fished as a realistic imitation when
matching the hatch. Green Drake Spinners are active primarily at night,
making this portion of a Green Drake hatch difficult to fish
effectively.
When fishing a Green Drake spinner fall, these bugs will float and
drift along the water’s surface, so try this pattern out as the first
spent adults begin to fall from nearby vegetation. When trout are keyed
in spent Green Drakes, look for the gentle, sipping rises of feeding
fish and cast your spinner pattern to these areas of subtle activity.
This bug will yield the best results in areas where Green Drake
spinners are visible along the surface film in the main drift.
Slow-moving eddys often collect large numbers of spent mayflies and are
prime spots for hungry trout during and after an intense spinner fall.
How to Fish Mercer's Profile Spinner Brown Drake
Fish this fly on a dead drift through all the major water types and
always be careful to make sure your offering is riding high in the
surface film, the zone where spinners collect. When fishing this fly
pattern in shallow water of good to excellent clarity, be very careful
not to disturb the holding trout. Be sure to select a longer leader
with lighter diameter tippet material; creating too much commotion on
the water’s surface with heavy or otherwise inappropriate terminal
tackle can spook wary trout. Adding a few twitches to the rod tip
during the drift can simulate the final movements of a spent mayfly
spinner. Some spinners are actually swept below the surface and when
imitating these bugs it can be useful to fish your fly wet with a
common nymphing technique.
Green Drake
Drunella grandis and doddsi
are large, olive green to brown mayflies commonly known as the western
Green Drake. The species is famous on trout rivers in western North
America for its prolific hatches in faster, rocky water. During the
larval stage, western Green Drakes thrive in the well-oxygenated water
of medium to fast riffles and current seams. These crawling mayflies
require lots of rocky structure, debris, and vegetation to remain
comfortable in their environment. The western Green Drake follows the
life stages of a typical mayfly life cycle and hatches during the
summer months of June and July with often quite intense emergences.
There is a species of mayfly found in the rivers and streams of the
northeastern United States that also bears the name “Green Drake.”
These eastern Green Drakes (Ephemera guttulata)
are relatively large burrowing nymphs that are similar in color to the
western Green Drake, but display a lighter tan or white abdomen.
Eastern Green Drake activity has gained a reputation in some eastern
fishing circles as an “epic hatch” but this prolific emergence is
highly localized, rendering the species an important one, but not an
integral one to an eastern fly angler’s overall success. The eastern
Green Drake dun molts to the famous Coffin Fly spinner, a beautiful
mayfly with dark, patterned wings and a bright white body.
Green Drake Spinner Life Stage
After hatching into winged adults, Green Drakes will flutter to nearby
foliage and vegetation prior to mating. Males will create large mating
swarms above the water's surface and females will fly into these clouds
of sexually mature males. After the females are fertilized, they will
deposit their eggs on the surface of the water. Both males and females
will fall as spent spinners to the surface film, some will float high
on the water and others will be swept below the surface. Green Drake
spinners are active during the evening and nighttime hours, so
imitating them successfully can be a challenge to even a seasoned fly
angler. These bugs are, however, extremely vulnerable despite their
nocturnal behavior and will often collect in slow eddys during and
after a heavy fall.
About the Tyer: Mike Mercer
Mike Mercer is a self-proclaimed “hopeless fly fishing junkie with an
incurable addiction to the vise.” Such honest and direct words are not
surprising from Mr. Mercer, a fly angler and tyer known for his
innovative uses of fly tying materials and creative fly designs. In
fact, it wouldn’t be off the mark to say his fly patterns actually
reflect both his honesty and directness.
Mercer has been fishing all his life, but catching his first smallmouth
bass on a fly rod blew open the proverbial gates, sending him deep into
the fly fishing world. With the help of his grandfather’s old pickup
truck, Mercer explored the fantastic trout water of California’s rich
wilderness areas. With his youthful enthusiasm for traveling with a fly
rod, he actually opened a fly shop of his own. At Mike Mercer’s Rod and
Fly (doubling as the basement of his parents’ house) a fly fisher could
find a selection of custom fly rods, fly fishing and fly tying
magazines, and Mike himself, behind the vise, whipping up box loads of
custom flies.
As a fly fishing guide, writer, travel consultant, and creative fly
tyer, Mercer has been able to form a unique perspective on the sport
and share it with other fly anglers across the world. His fly designs
have appeared in magazine, in books, and with the help of Umpqua
Feather Merchants, anglers across the globe have been able to fish a
Mike Mercer creation hard and with great success in waters near and
far.
Mercer’s designs often hinge on an idea that “seems obvious” but from a
design perspective, these are often the very best kinds of ideas.
Mercer continues to create great flies and is a tremendous resource to
the fly fishing and fly tying community.
Leland on Umpqua
In
1972 a man named Dennis Black and his fly tying skills found themselves
in high demand. Mr. Black, then a professional production fly tyer, was
famous in the industry for his unsurpassed skill and speed with
whipping up tremendously beautiful and precisely constructed flies. It
wasn’t long until this young fly tying superstar realized that he ought
to take his consistent approach to quality to the next level. Shortly
after this realization, a small army of fly tyers had banded together
to support Mr. Black’s vision. With the likes of Dave Whitlock, Jack
Dennis, and Andy Puyans, Mr. Black was officially in business.
Dennis
Black’s new company Umpqua Feather Merchants quickly extended its reach
and fly production capabilities with expansion into India, Sri Lanka,
and Thailand, where the world’s first and full blown “fly tying
factories” were built. Since those early days, only the highest
standard of excellence has marked Umpqua and this commitment to quality
and efficiency continues to spur the company forward. Dennis Black’s
innovative vision for “fly production” has truly revolutionized how the
fly industry operates and has ultimately made the majority of
production flies better. From the first “royalty system” for rewarding
the most creative professional fly tyers to streamlining production
systems and offering a range of other products, Umpqua Feather
Merchants just seems to “do it all.”
Today, Umpqua Feather
Merchants is without a doubt the world’s best and most prolific
supplier of hand tied fly fishing flies as well as fly tying hooks and
materials, and they recently got better! Umpqua’s brand new, state of
the art headquarters in Louisville, Colorado marks another paradigm
shift in the way fly tying business is done. From its vast warehouse to
its specially designed inventory management and tracking system, Umpqua
is poised to continue its energetic trajectory and lead the way for the
next generation of flies and fly tyers.
Umpqua on Dennis Black and the “Obvious Quest”
“The
idea first took shape in the hands of our founder, Dennis Black, back
in 1972. As a fast and facile professional fly tyer, Dennis was known
for his skill and speed at producing hundreds of dozens of flies each
year for the larger mail order houses. But he was also quick to realize
how fast the demand for excellent flies would outstrip the abilities of
cottage industry types like him.
The Obvious Quest: To create
excellent flies in sufficient supply – without sinking his standards.
In response, Dennis developed (with characteristic care) a methodical
plan: First, he enlisted the tying expertise of the likes of Dave
Whitlock, Jack Dennis, Andy Puyans and others, to help him set the
standard of excellence for Umpqua flies.
Next, Dennis
established the first of what would eventually be five separate
fly-tying “factories,” first in India, then in Sri Lanka, and finally
in Thailand. The primary focus at each of these factories was on
producing the very best fishing flies possible, constructed of the very
best materials available. From the beginning, the quantity of flies
produced was secondary to the quality and excellence of each fly
pattern. These high standards were assured by the personal involvement
of the fly designers themselves, and by the ever-increasing skill,
imagination and creativity of the Umpqua production fly tiers. Today,
you will find no flies more skillfully tied than those available from
Umpqua Feather Merchants.
Finally, Dennis created a system of
royalty payments, to reward professional tyers like Whitlock, Lefty
Kreh, Randall Kaufman, Larry Dahlberg, and Bob Popovics for uniquely
good patterns.
The Result: Today, Umpqua produces umpteen
thousand dozen flies, from micro-scopic midge imitations to the huge
patterns favored by marlin and sailfish. And the "Umpquality" – you’ll
see for yourself.”