Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

What is the measure of great achievement for a trout fly? Featured articles in glossy magazines? Making “Top Ten” lists of the fly-fishing paparazzi? A fly whose bin is always empty at the local fly shop? These are fine tributes to accomplished flies, but the most noble of honors – the pièce de résistance – is reserved for a chosen few: flies so good they have a beer named after them! Such is the case with the Haystack dry fly and its namesake beer “Haystack Blond Ale”, brewed by the Great Adirondack Brewing Company of Lake Placid, NY. The Haystack is a pat­tern born of the creative mind and talented hands of Francis Betters. Fran Betters (1931-2009) owned and operated Adirondack Sport Shop, located on the West Branch of the AuSable River in upstate New York, for decades. Mr. Betters was known widely as a fly-fishing guide, teacher, storyteller, and creator of champion flies, including the Haystack, the Ausable Wulff, and the Usual.

Fran Betters grew up along the AuSable and spent a lifetime studying its habits. He began tying flies at an early age, selling the Haystack to local an­glers from his home while still in high school. Inspira­tion for the Haystack came from a family friend, who tied a fly that, according to Fran, was “a big gob of deer hair tied to a #6 or #8 hook”. Although crude, that ugly monster yielded many fine fish for Betters during the 1940s. Betters downsized the pattern and refined it to match mayfly hatches of the AuSable. He tied the first bona fide Haystack in June 1949, and it has been catching fish ever since.

The Haystack captures an elusive combination of simplicity and effectiveness. It is tied of hollow deer hair and is almost unsinkable, an important trait on the pocket waters of the AuSable. The fanned wing is highly visible, even under low light conditions. The materials cost is minimal, and the fly is almost inde­structible. Whereas more ordinary flies may succumb after a few fish, the Haystack performs like the Ener­gizer Bunny … it just keeps going and going.

The Haystack sits flush in the surface film, braced by its buoyant tail and “outriggers” of hollow hair. Flies that sit in the film “dimple” the water’s surface, caus­ing a light-reflecting and light-refracting imprint of their body when viewed from a trout’s underwater perspec­tive. The fish-catching magic of low-riding flies was detailed by Vince Marinaro in his 1950 landmark book A Modern Dry Fly Code, and such flies have become wildly popular today. “Emergers” as a group represent a continuum of developmental stages beginning below the surface film and continuing through intermediate stages until the winged adult dun pierces the surface film and crawls atop the water. The Haystack imitates a late stage of emergence, as a winged adult dun, having struggled to shed its nymphal skin, floats atop the surface waiting for its wings to dry. Emerging mayflies are especially vulnerable to trout predation, and emerger patterns are both effective and popular. Patterns like the Haystack or parachute duns are more popular today than their traditionally hackled cousins.

The Haystack is the direct ancestor of two very popu­lar contemporary flies. Comparaduns, described by Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi in their 1975 book Hatch­es, and Sparkle Duns, developed in the 1980s by Craig Mathews and John Juracek, differ from the Haystack mostly by their tails. Haystacks have tails of bundled deer hair, Comparaduns have split hackle-fiber tails, and Sparkle Duns have tails of Antron fi­bers to imitate a trailing nymphal shuck. Other than that, Comparaduns and Sparkle Duns share the same basic design as a Haystack, a relationship the origina­tors readily acknowledge and credit.

Copyright 2024, Rusty Dunn

Haystack

The Haystack imitates mayfly duns and emergers. Tie it in the sizes and colors of mayflies you’ll likely en­counter. Set the wings at 1/3 shank length, and spread the bundled butt ends of the deer hair around the top half of the hook shank to aid floatation. Splay the wings around a full half circle to imitate a dun, and a little less to imitate an emerger that floats lower in the surface film.