Sparkle Dun (Blue-winged Olive) Craig Mathews HOOK: #18-#20 standard dry fly (Mustad R30 shown). THREAD: Olive 70-denier Ultra Thread. WING: Natural mule deer hair. TRAILING SHUCK: Amber Z-lon BODY: Olive Superfine dubbing.

Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi coined the name "Compara-dun" in their book Comparahatch (1972) but borrowed heavily from an earlier Adirondack pattern called the Haystack. The Haystack was a large, bulky attractor pattern with a deer hair wing and dubbed fur body, used for high or off-color water. In contrast, the Compara-dun was a slimmer, more accurate mayfly imitation that could be tied to match various mayfly hatches across the country.

The Compara-dun is a simple, durable design that adds only three materials to the hook, floats reasonably well even in broken water, and fools even the toughest trout. The upright fan-wing design triggers strikes from fish feeding on mayfly duns, but because the 180-degree wing also extends an equal distance to each side, Compara-duns have a "footprint" similar to mayfly spinners, which float on the water with wings splayed to the side. This makes the Compara-dun an easy-to-see and effective spinner imitation.

Craig Mathews, who owns Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, Montana, slightly modified the Compara-dun by replacing the hackle-fiber tails with an amber Z-lon "shuck" that represents the partially empty exoskeleton of a mayfly nymph still attached to the emerging mayfly dun. This adaptation--called the Sparkle Dun--allows you to fish three stages of the mayfly life cycle with a single fly.

CLICK HERE for a detailed video on how to tie a Sparkle Dun.

Tying Steps

Step 1. Attach the thread to the read of the hook shank. Clip a sparse section of amber Z-lon and attach the trailing shuck using the folding technique. After tying in the shuck, clip it the same length as the hook shank or shorter. Be sure to leave the front half of the hook shank bare.

Step 2. Stack the deer hair and trim the butts at an angle so the hair forward of the cut is about the length of the hook shank. The angled cut at the base of the hair wing helps create a tapered mayfly body. Position the thread at the 60 percent position and use a pinch wrap to attach the wing with the deer hair tips extending forward over the hook eye and the tapered butts behind the initial thread wraps. Secure the wing by wrapping back over the tapered deer hair butts to create a smooth underbody. Using your thumbnail, push the wing to the vertical position, and make a thread dam in front of the wing to hold it in this position. Wrap over the base of the wing and tail (especially near the junction of these two materials) to create a smooth underbody.

3. Twist a tight dubbing rope and wrap a slim body forward to the base of the wing and complete the body with wraps both in front and behind the wing to give the impression of a slightly enlarged thorax. End the dubbed body neatly just behind the hook eye and whip-finish.

4. Grasp the hair wing and spread the fibers into a 180-degree fan position.

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