This post was last updated on August 16th, 2014 at 11:27 pm

The Brown Drake Fly Pattern

The brown drake fly is a great hatch that is well enjoyed in much of the US. In the midwest the brown drake will hatch just before, if not almost simultaneously with the hexagenia. It is slightly smaller and darker than the hex flies, although it is a very large mayfly. These flies can induce trout feeding frenzies during the actual hatch and the spinner falls late in the evening. They are brown fly (obviously) with dark colored wings. I have had some extremely great days with these large flies on the water.

The brown drake spinner fall will occur late in the evening as the sun is close to setting. They will flock to the river and breed in a large frenzy. These flies (just as all mayflies) will fall to the water dead after breeding. This “spinner fall” will get the trout eating on the surface of the water with almost certainty.

Tying the Brown Drake Fly Pattern

This pattern is easy to construct and can have tons of variation. If you have a form of brown dubbing and some dark wing material it should work fine for this hatch.

To Tie the brown drake pattern shown here you will need:

• Pheasant tail
• Brown dubbing
• Size 8-10 hooks
• Saddle hackle, although higher quality hackle will certainly float this best.
• Gold ribbing
• Tips of brown saddle for the wings

You can get creative while tying this fly pattern, especially the spinner version; since the trout will be feeding on them in low light conditions. The profile of the fly is more important than coloration in my opinion. If you have a fly that is similarly sized to the brown drake, it will usually catch fish during the spinner fall. The trout in the day that are feeding on hatching insects will tend to be more picky, in this case you can still get creative with this pattern. The brown drake mayfly is easy to mimic with many different materials.