Have you bopped?

[Sterling silver]

One of the recent freshwater threads mentioned the Hale Bop pattern. I've used one for a few years that I thought was a match for the original, but have never seen the "real" pattern described. Has anyone got a good recipe?

[Sourdoughs]

After reading the thread, I looked at the ones I bought. Here's what it looked like, without disassembling it. Here's the olive, but I have the same in black:

Hook: Nymph, probably around 2xL.
Tail: Olive marabou.
Body: Oliveish mohair or similar long strand dubbing, looks like it's spun in a dubbing loop.
Head: May have an olive-dyed pheasant rump, single turn. Then a few wraps of red for a collar.
Bead: Gold.

The body tapers from small to big from tail to head. Looks like the dubbing loop has the stuff pulled to one side as it's wrapped so that it stands up as it's wrapped. I'm guessing on this as I haven't actually tied any.

-Marc

[Sterling silver]

Hey, Marc,

Thanks, that seems to be about the same read that I had. I did add some dubbing kicker to the body for a little additional attraction. Seemed to work OK. Kind of a fun fly.

Sterling

[Double-D]

Have to chime in here. I heard Larry of Lenice say last weekend that he developed the Hale-Bop and that the reason they are hard to find now is that the material for the dubbing is olive dyed possum and is currently hard to find. I can't verify if he is telling the truth but it sounded convincing enough. I do know there is other fur out there that can duplicate possum.

[Richard Olmstead]

I've tied these with a fuzzy mohair yarn, which works okay, but doesn't permit the same sort of body taper that you can get with dubbing. I noticed that a certain fly shop in Lake Forest Park has a commercial "Hale-Bop" dubbing apparently developed just for this fly. Yes, to olive dyed pheasant rump hackle. A recipe I saw emphasized keeping the tail sparse (relative to a wooly bugger, for instance).
Dick

[Flyn'dutchman]

If I remember right Derek Fergus developed the fly. It is tied best with his "On The Take" dubbing. The dubbing is spun in a loop. Solitude Fly Co. is one source for commercial tied versions.