Dark Olives

The 'Baetis Rhodani'  or the Dark Olive as commonly termed, probably constitutes the first Dun river fishers observe sailing down the river when the season begins. Witnessing this annual event in these first few days always (without fail) starts my pulse racing - as I struggle tying the fly on, nervous and excited. Sounds familar, yes? As such, when tying for the following season, I always graivitate towards matching the dark olive hatch before anything else. Here are a few of the various styles I recently tied for the river dry fly box:

Dark olive poly dun:
Hook: Varivas Standard Dry IWI S-2000 #14
Thread: olive
Tail: Dub Fibbets
Body: olive-brown superfine dubbing
Wing: blue dun poly
Hackle: Blue dun cock hackle

F-Fly Variant

Hook: Varivas IWI S-2000, #14

Thread: olive

Body: Olive silk

Wing: Two natural CDC feathers

Thorax: olive hare's ear

Para-dun dark olive (looped)

Hook: Partridge SLD #14

Body: olive superfine dubbing

Wing: White poly

Hackle: Dun cock hackle

Para-dun olive

Hook: Partridge SLD #14

Thread: olive

Olive para-dun

Hook: Partridge SLD #14

Tail: Microfibbets

Body: Olive Dun flyrite

Hackle: Blue dun

Wing post: Med blue poly