Fulling Mill Hare's Ear (GRHE)

Hare's fur on a dry fly, and the guard hairs do the rest

Most anglers know hare's ear as a nymph, but the dressing started life as a winged dry, the Hare's Ear Blue Dun, long before it lost its wings. The appeal is the same either way: the mask gives soft underfur to hold shape and stiff guard hairs that stick out at every angle, suggesting legs, tails and the untidy outline of a real dun. That scruffiness is why it works when a neat, precisely tied imitation gets refused. Fish it through a mayfly hatch when the naturals are drab olive to brown, or as a searching dry over broken water.