Some sort of leech
I first tied this at Hihium Lake about 5 years ago and it's caught lots of fish for me but in fairness I also use it a lot. It uses few materials and it's easy to tie. I tie it on a 4x long hook usually an 8 but I've gone as large as a 4 and small as a 12. I tie it with either hackle, guinea fowl or pheasant rump in red, olive, burgundy or black.
Pinch the barb of a size 8 hook and slip a 5/32 brass or black bead over the point. Set the hook in the vice and lay down a layer of 6/0 thread in a complimentary colour.
Select 2 dyed red badger hackles and match the concave tips. Tie these down for a tail and trim.
Take the trimmed ends together of what is normally waste materials. March the thread up the hook shank and tie these down so they overlay about half the tail. Trim the hackle and repeat this step until you either get up to the bead or run out of feathers. If you do run out grab a couple more and keep going until you get to the bead. You'll end up with a thatched body overlaying the hook.
Tie in a couple pieces of red or gold krystal flash or flashabou the length of the fly.
Trim some down off the base of the feather and dub this on the thread. Wrap it behind the bead and bury your thread in the whip finish applying cement to the thread in the process. Now give the fly a further haircut until it looks edible.
That's it! A hook, a bead, 2 feathers and a couple inches of flash.
It's worth noting that trimming the down for the dubbing is required because if you pull it from the stem you get little white pieces of the stem that you don't want.
I also sometimes use glass beads for the head or will stick on a glass bead behind the brass bead.
I kick troll this or cast and retrieve it as a leech pattern but in olive it's worked as a caddis pupae. I probably like the red variation better but it depends on the day.
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Pinch the barb of a size 8 hook and slip a 5/32 brass or black bead over the point. Set the hook in the vice and lay down a layer of 6/0 thread in a complimentary colour.
Select 2 dyed red badger hackles and match the concave tips. Tie these down for a tail and trim.
Take the trimmed ends together of what is normally waste materials. March the thread up the hook shank and tie these down so they overlay about half the tail. Trim the hackle and repeat this step until you either get up to the bead or run out of feathers. If you do run out grab a couple more and keep going until you get to the bead. You'll end up with a thatched body overlaying the hook.
Tie in a couple pieces of red or gold krystal flash or flashabou the length of the fly.
Trim some down off the base of the feather and dub this on the thread. Wrap it behind the bead and bury your thread in the whip finish applying cement to the thread in the process. Now give the fly a further haircut until it looks edible.
That's it! A hook, a bead, 2 feathers and a couple inches of flash.
It's worth noting that trimming the down for the dubbing is required because if you pull it from the stem you get little white pieces of the stem that you don't want.
I also sometimes use glass beads for the head or will stick on a glass bead behind the brass bead.
I kick troll this or cast and retrieve it as a leech pattern but in olive it's worked as a caddis pupae. I probably like the red variation better but it depends on the day.
