Michigan Flies

Flies / Dry fly

Regan's Hendrickson Parachute

A

Au Sable River, Grayling

The Au Sable guide standard for the first of the Big Five hatches, fished from the last week of April into mid May when water holds 50 to 55 F. Duns come off mid-afternoon (2 to 5 pm on the Au Sable) for one to two hours; drift it drag-free over riffles and tailouts. Carry both the dark male and lighter female shades in #12 and #14.

#12–14Dark Hendrickson (reddish brown)Light Hendrickson (creamy tan)clear waterafternoon
What the pattern looks like
Reference photos of the Regan's Hendrickson Parachute tied by others, shared by their photographers. Not our flies; our own product photos replace these as they are shot.

Photo © Quinn for Fly Deal Flies, used with permission · Hendrickson Light

Season
Months this pattern is in play across Michigan, derived from what it imitates.
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Imitates

The naturals

Fish it for
Brown troutBrook troutRainbow trout (resident)

Setups

  • Dry fly
How it's tied
A
Jerry Regan's Au Sable Hendrickson dun in the old Grayling deer-hair style: a hair body bound with criss-cross thread, the hair butts turned up as the post, parachute hackle wound around them. Our own write-up of the standard tie, checked against the sources below. Recipe by Jerry Darkes, Fly Tyer (2019).

Materials

Hook
Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 12-14
Thread
Dark brown 6/0 Danville (tan or cream for the Light Hendrickson)Regan says the thread color shows through the hair and shades the body
Tail
A few black moose body hairs, or pheasant tail fibers
Body
Deer hair laid parallel to the shank and bound down with X-wraps; dyed mahogany or reddish brown for the Dark, tan for the Light
Post
Butt ends of the body hair pulled upright and posted with thread
Wingoptional
Two dun hen hackle tips, upright or slightly spent
Hackle
Brown and grizzly mixed, or medium dun, wound parachute style around the hair post
Thorax
Thread or a pinch of matching dubbing

Steps

  1. 1.Cover the shank once with thread so the hair will not spin, and tie in three or four moose hairs for a tail a little longer than the shank.
  2. 2.Clean and stack a small bunch of deer hair, lay it along the top of the shank with the tips over the tail, and bind it at the rear with firm wraps so the tips flare slightly around the tail.
  3. 3.Spiral the thread forward over the hair in open turns, then back and forward again so the wraps cross as X's on top of the body; stop about a third of the shank behind the eye.
  4. 4.Gather the hair butts, pull them straight up, and build a thread dam in front and a few turns around their base to make a firm post.
  5. 5.If you want wings, tie a pair of dun hen tips in front of the post and split them with figure-eights.
  6. 6.Tie in the hackle (one brown and one grizzly, or a single dun) against the post and take the thread a few turns up the post to stiffen it.
  7. 7.Wind the hackle down the post three to five turns, tie it off beneath the hackle in front of the post and trim.
  8. 8.Form a small head, whip finish and trim the post to a wing height of about a shank length.

From the tier

  • Michigan history: Jerry Regan, a barber from Swartz Creek who grew up around Grayling, guided the Au Sable and tied commercially for decades; Fly Tyer's Jerry Darkes describes his method of laying deer hair along the shank and pulling the butts up as the post.
  • Streamside in Grayling calls him the best dry-fly tier in northern Michigan and sells the Hendrickson Parachute in 12 and 14 alongside a matching spinner; the Light and Dark versions follow the natural's two color phases.
  • The deer-hair body with X-wraps is the Au Sable signature that goes back to Clarence Roberts; Gates Lodge's Stacked Hackle Hendrickson uses the same mahogany-dyed deer body and moose tail.

Tie One On - Grayling, Michigan Style Regan has not published this exact dressing; the sheet reconstructs it from his deer-hair parachute method as described by Jerry Darkes in Fly Tyer, the materials of his published spinner, and the Gates Lodge Hendrickson in the same tradition. Unconfirmed: Exact hackle color, whether hen-tip wings are used, and the body-hair dye shades for Light vs Dark are inferred, not confirmed by Regan. Also checked against Streamside Au Sable River Fly Fishing Guides, Regan's Hendrickson Parachute Size 14, Streamside Au Sable River Fly Fishing Guides, Jerry Regan Dry Flies and Gates Au Sable Lodge (2013), Stacked Hackle Hendrickson.

Materials to buy
Everything one Regan's Hendrickson Parachute takes, each item once: 5 items, plus 2 optional. Quantities are for a single fly. We do not sell components yet; when we do, these will link to them.

Hook and hardware

  • Standard dry-fly hooks1 per fly

    sizes 12-14

    Hook

Feathers and fur

  • Moose body hair1 patch

    Tail

  • Deer body hair, dyed1 patch each

    mahogany and tan

    BodyPost

  • Dun hen capeoptional1 cape

    Wing

  • Brown and grizzly dry-fly capes1 each

    Hackle

  • Medium dun dry-fly capeoptional1 cape

    Hackle

    Alternative single-color hackle

Thread and finish

  • Danville 6/0 thread1 spool each

    dark brown and tan · Danville

    ThreadThorax

Sources