Puff Plus

Puff Plus Background

The Puff Plus was inspired by fishing Blake Boyd’s pattern, the Puff Daddy. The Puff Daddy is an extremely effective pattern, and I often tie them sparse for tricky fish. However, there are times when I want to suspend a dropper, times when I want to be able to see it better, or times when I just want it to ride a little higher. For these reasons, I tie the “Puff Plus,” simply a Puff Daddy with a CDC wing and maybe a little heavier CDC collar.

Fishing the Puff Plus

After fishing the Puff Plus it has become a core to my approach to fishing the South Holston River, and particularly the upper section. As anyone who has fished it knows, it is an extremely technical section of river, requiring long leaders, light tippets, and a delicate approach. The Puff Plus is the perfect “indicator fly” for these conditions. In particular, it stands out due to:

  1. Fishing Long Light Leaders – Due to the fact that the fly is tied primarily with CDC, when cast the fly slims down and provides little air resistance. This allows it to be cast with a long, light leader with no leader twist.
  2. Delicate Presentation – The fly lands lightly on the water, is extremely sensitive, and balances well with light droppers.
  3. Visibility – I generally tie the fly with a fairly lightly colored CDC wing, which is generally visible on the water; however you can also tie the fly with chartreuse, pink, or orange CDC to further increase visibility (think foggy conditions after generation in the summer).
  4. Sulphur Imitation – The fly looks enough like a sulphur that it gets eaten, and when the duns start skating around on the surface it really shines.

I will often fish the Puff Plus when “dry dropper” fishing on the upper South Holston, but will also fish it in tandem with another dry fly below. It’s a great way to track your size 24 midge emerger…

While tied originally to imitate sulphurs, and then as an indicator fly (that also gets eaten regularly), this fly also works great as a caddis imitation and can be tied in colors to match.

 

 

Materials List

Hook: TMC 100 

Thread: 8/0 Uni Olive Dun

Body: Fulling Mill Tactical Dry Fly Dub - Pale Sulphur Yellow 

CDC: Fulling Mill Natural Gray

 

Alternative Materials

Hook: TMC 101 or FM 5050

Body: Super Fine Dubbing - Pale Morning Dun


 

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