Fly of the day! Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

After a long hiatus in the fly of the day series, we return today with one of the best in my box, Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly. This is another of the patterns developed by Harry Murray of Virginia fly fishing fame. The pattern is an excellent general dry fly pattern that is nearly guaranteed to produce on mountain trout streams. It does a nice job of imitating the March Brown mayfly and is an excellent search pattern. Best of all, the yellow hair wing is easily visible from as far as I can cast and does not blend in with flotsam as a white wing may. The fly is heavily hackled, and with the additional floatation provided by the hair wing and tail it will ride rough currents almost like a cork. I fish this fly in sizes #12-#16 from March to November.

Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

Hook: Dry fly hook #12-#16
Thread: Brown or black
Tail: Black deer or moose hair
Wing: Yellow-died calf's tail, split to form separate wings (see below)
Body: Light brown natural dubbing (hare's ear pictured) mixed with sulfur superfine dubbing
Hackle: Heavily hackle using coachman brown hackle and grizzly hackle.