#32 Wonderbody Parachute

Henk's notes

#32 Wonderbody Parachute

Hans Weilenmann

I was surprised when I got my #32 hook. And not particularly pleasantly. I'd seen small hooks, but never anything as small as that. I had wanted to tie a dry fly for my SPF entry, but when I got the hook I realized that nothing I had, especially not my hackle, was small enough to tie an acceptable dry fly. I then thought, well, if I tie an extended body parachute, I can get away with slightly larger hackle, for two reasons, because it is a parachute, and because it is an extended body, therefore is larger than a 'normal' fly on the same hook. However I couldn't think of a way of making an extended body on a size #32 until I remembered the 'wonder' style of tying. At the time I was tying 100 wonderwing caddises for the 99 caddis swap, you see...

I had a small supply of size #24 Daiichi hooks lying around (about the same size as a #28 Vince Marinaro K1A hook) on which I practiced the pattern. I also had a spool of UNI-Thread 17/0 trico thread that I wanted to test. After three practice runs, I decided to put the #32 hook in the vice. Making the wonderbody was relatively painless, but making the parachute post was an entirely different matter. The post, when tied small and sparse enough to conform to the hook size, is so flimsy and flexible that it is almost impossible to wrap a sturdy base for the parachute hackle. Dubbing sparse enough to make a nice thin thorax is a challenge also (and I must say that I'm not entirely satisfied with my result...), as is wrapping the hackle. But I did do it in one sitting...

Tier info:

Henk Verhaar is a 38 year old environmental toxicologist/chemist, currently working as a risk assessment consultant to the chemical industry, mainly the agrochemical industry. He has fished since age 6 (after taking mandatory swimming lessons...), bought his first flyrod at age 16, and his first fly tying kit at age 22.