My favorite small stream brookie fly from the late Fran Betters. I either start with this or Harry Murray's Mr. Rapidan when I fish SNP; great for cutts & cutt-bows on little blue lines in MT, too. Fun fly to tie, lots of good memories. hook - Tiemco 5212 #10 thread - MFC 6/0 hot orange tail - woodchuck tail rib - UTC wire x-small gold body - rabbit dubbing rust wing - calftail white hackle - brown & grizzly; undersize by 1 (these are for a #12 hook) mash barb and attach thread at 75% mark clean, stack and measure a clump of calftail (shank length) 2 firm loops and continue back with additional wraps; trim butts brush butts with Sally, continue wrapping back (smooth over butts) and tie in wire wrap thread back to point above barb clean, stack and measure a clump of woodchuck tail (gap length x2) tie down and wrap forward (firmly) to wing butts trim tail butts and smooth over with tying thread move thread in front of wing and create thread dam return thread to tail and apply dubbing dub body and in front of wing; leave 1 hook eye width at front tie in hackles wrap hackle back to the tail; I like it dense and cram as many wraps as I can get onto the hook so I use my good saddles start wire rib forward; trap hackle tips with 1st wrap continue rib through body/hackle up to head helicopter wire and cover with thread wraps; trim hackle tips, half hitch x2 and SHHAN I used to wrap the hackle back to front, but with all the discussion recently that Hans instigated I thought I'd try front to back, EHC style, and it turned out pretty neat with a small, clean head. Regards, Scott
