Overview

Designed by Umpqua signature tyer Mike Mercer, the Stealth Link is an adaptation of his popular Missing Link. It imitates a mayfly that is still working its way out of its nymphal skin in the surface film, one of the most vulnerable moments in a mayfly's life.

A slim quill body and a two-part soft shuck give it a lean, natural profile. Trout in clear, heavily fished water often key on these stuck emergers and cripples because they cannot fly away, and they will ignore a fully formed dry floating right beside them. A low-riding, slender fly like this one is often what finally gets a picky fish to rise.

How to Fish It

• Dead drift in the film: present it like a cripple, with a drag-free drift right into the feeding lane of a rising fish.
• Downstream presentation: on flat water, cast slightly above and across from the fish and feed slack so the fly reaches it before the leader.
• Tippet: 5X for Green Drakes, 6X for PMDs and 6X or 7X for BWOs.
• Visibility: it rides low, so pair it with a more visible dry a few feet away if you lose track of it.

Choosing Color and Size

Match the hatch. BWO covers Blue-Winged Olives in spring and fall, PMD covers Pale Morning Duns in summer, and Green Drake covers the big early-summer drakes.

The larger sizes, 10 and 12, match Green Drakes. Size 18 is a typical PMD size, and 22 fits small Blue-Winged Olives.