Rusty's Laid Back Dun
Recipe - Rusty’s Laid Back Dun
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View the Step by Step Instructions
- Hook
- TMC 100 or dry fly hook of choice
- Thread
- 6/0 and 8/0
- Tails
- Tailing Fibers on #12 and smaller hook, Pheasant Tail or Moose Body on larger hooks
- Abdomen
- Thread, dubbing or hair depending on fly size
- Thorax
- Dubbing
- Hackle
- Whiting Farms Dry Fly Saddle or Rooster Cape
- Wing
- EP Fibers
I am a parachute fanatic. I have tied well over one thousand dozen of the critters over the years. Parachutes are the most versatile of dry flies. A wonderful substitute for the parachute is Rusty’s Laid Back Dun.
The late, great tier Rusty Gates of Gates’ AuSable Lodge fame, cooked up a slew of great patterns over the years. He wanted a good alternative to the parachute and came up with a dandy. The “Laid Back” has a great body silhouette, which rides low in the film and shows a very realistic wing outline. It also gets an “A” rating for durability.
The basic pattern can be tied on any size hook, from the largest drake pattern to as small as you can tie them. I use three different body types. For the big bugs like Brown Drakes and Hex, I use the hair body you find on Potter’s Drake or the venerable Roberts’ Yellow Drake. On mid-size files, #12 and #14, I generally use a dubbed body. Superfine Dubbing is ideal for these flies. For #16 and smaller, the abdomen is thread or biot with tails split with thread. The thorax is dubbed.
Wing materials vary from size to size. The biggest of these flies can be winged with EP Fibers or hair. I tend to use the EP Fibers because it is waterproof, is available in all the colors you will ever need, and relatively stiff. Tie the wing in heavy and cut it to shape.
A note of warning: STAY BACK FROM THE EYE WHILE YOU TIE! You need room for the wing/head.
Use lots of high quality hackle on this fly. Whiting Farms Dry Fly Saddle is perfect for all but the biggest flies. It is a wonderful feather product and a great value. A typical Silver grade saddle will yield about 300 feathers and allow you to tie close to a thousand well-hackled flies.
