For a trout fisher there is probably nothing prettier than a dry fly dancing down a sparkling riffle on its hackle tips. Most of the time fish find it attractive too.

There are few absolutes in angling however, and sometimes only artificials sitting flat on or in the surface film produce. Days when fish are feeding on emerging insects and spinners are examples.

This is when low-riding patterns such as parachute flies enter the picture. They are constructed so the hackle is parallel to the hook rather than at right angles and ride flat on the water or partially immersed.

They are, as a rule, made by wrapping hackle around the wing base, around some kind of peg affixed to the hook or, in some methods, around the hackle feather's own stem. These techniques range from comparatively simple to marvelously complex and in many cases result in flies that are not quite so durable as regular ones.

Hackle wound around the hook in the same direction as the other windings helps tighten and reinforce the entire fly.

There is an easy way to make a low riding fly using conventionally applied hackle. You can insure yourself of a supply when conditions warrant by a slight modification in dressing a few each time you make regular dries.

Besides, it's a way to use up those left over feathers that are too wide for hackling popular size flies and too narrow to furnish fibers for tails.

Ordinarily, in order to cock and float properly, dry flies require care in hackle selection, tailing and winging. They are supposed to alight upright and ride on hackle and tail tips or hackle alone. Body and hook should be supported clear of the water.

To consistently do this, tail length, hackling feather width, and wing placement are very important. On parachute type flies, except for possible esthetic reasons, none of this is critical.

For instance, a conventional dry fly with hackles a little too long will float nose down. If the tail is too short or missing it will ride nose up.

A parachute fly however, is designed to alight flat on the water and this is what it does, wide hackle or narrow, long tail or short, spent wing or up-right.

Fasten a hook in the tying vise and coat the shank with fly head cement. Secure tying thread to the front of the hook, spiral it to the rear and half-hitch just before the bend and coat with fly head cement again.

Tie on a small bunch of stiff hackle fibers for a tail. Fasten body material in the same place, but don't wrap it forward yet. Cement this knot and spiral the thread to about midway between the point and eye and make a half-hitch there. This is where the wings will be.

Secure the wings with their tips extending forward past the hook eye, then lift them upright and wind thread in front to keep them so. Make a wrap or two back of the wings to bind the butts to the hook, half-hitch and cement.

Wind the body material forward over the butts and tie off just back of the wings. Cement and half-hitch. This is where the modifying starts. If it is to be a parachute fly, don't cutoff the excess body material. Leave it hang below the hook.

Now select the hackle and prepare it by stroking the fibers so they extend roughly at right angles to the stem. Two feathers for the conventional dry and one for a parachute.

Tie the hackle on and wind it ahead and back of the wings. Dry fly hackle should be wound on a bias. It should go around the hook so the tips project X-fashioned, one turn towards the front and the next towards the rear. Hackle wound at exact right angles to the hook and crowded together makes a dense wall that blocks the fish's view of the fly body or wings and picks up and retains moisture. This is very important whether for a conventional fly or a parachute.

When the hackle is wound, tie down the tip with a half-hitch just ahead of the wings. Do not finish the head yet if it's going to be a parachute fly.

Spread the hackles under the hook and holding the tips up, pull the strand of body material you left hanging, forward tight against the bottom of the hook to keep the hackle spread and tie off at the head. Whip finish and cement the head and your fly is done.

If the body material is narrow, you may want to double the strand you pull ahead. This is probably easiest done by making a loop where you leave it hang.

For conventional dries, hackle fiber length should be one and one half times hook gap width in order to ride properly. Parachute hackle, however, can be any size you wish. For instance, for crane flies or spiders you may want it very wide and for some others narrow.

Overly wide won't effect how the fly lights on the water. You can have one sparse turn of wide to simulate long legs and a turn of narrow to help flotation if you wish.

This insect you want to imitate may have a thorax that is of a different color than the abdomen. To simulate this tie in some material of the thorax color at the same time as that for the body. Hold the thorax material along the bottom of the hook and wind the body over it.

All dry flies must be treated with flotant before and several times while being used. You can buy this or make it.

One way to make it yourself is to shave paraffin into a jar of gasoline until it will dissolve no more. Do this while it is sitting in the sun (like making sun tea).

Put some in a pocket sized large mouth bottle and take it along when fishing. If the weather is cool, carry it in an inside pocket or inside your shirt. Body heat will keep it from congealing.

Fish saliva is a wetting agent so after each take, rinse the fly and dip in flotant again.

I have good success lake fishing with these flies in large sizes when dragon and damsel flies are out. They are very attractive to bass.

Those insects usually touchdown with wings widespread. The construction described lends itself to spent-wing patterns more readily than do other parachute fly making techniques.