Materials List:
Hook- Tiemco 2312 size 12
Thread- UniThread Camel 6/0
Body- Spawn Simi Seal UV Steelhead Torch
Tail/Wings- Nature's Spirit Elk Rump Brown Drake
Hackle- Whiting Farms Saddle Hackle Feather Grizzly
Cement- Loon Hard Head
Step 1: After placing your hook securely in the vise, begin your thread. Wrap down past the hook point a few wraps and then return the thread to roughly even with the hook point. This will make it easier when we add our tail.
Step 2: Stack a small amount of elk hair, roughly 1/3 pencil thickness. Tie this on top of the hook so the tail extends a healthy 1/3 hook length. When you wrap down to the previous thread wraps the hair will splay and add some lift as well as stability to keep the fly keeling properly in faster water.
Step 3:
Once you've trimmed the butt ends of the hair, add a dab of Loon Hard Head or cement of your choice before wrapping all the trimmed ends down. This is a good habit for any hair flies to increase durability.
Step 4: Make a very sparse dubbing noodle roughly 2.5 inches long. We will dub back to the hair and then back to in front of the hook point. This body section should be 1/3 the body length or slightly smaller. A very small amount of dubbing will go a long way.
Step 5: Now stack a clump of elk hair that is roughly double the thickness of the tail clump. We want to tie this clump of hair in so the tips reach somewhere between the end and halfway back of the tail section. You can see the angle used to cut the trim ends of hair. When I add some cement it will allow some to travel up the fibers before wrapping down with thread. This again helps keep that hair where it needs to be.
Step 6: After adding a small amount of cement wrap down all the hairs and be in position for the next 1/3 of the body.
Step 7: Repeat the dubbing process we did earlier. Remember to keep it sparse!
Step 8: Stack another clump of elk hair the same as for the previous wing. Again the ends will reach just shy of the last hairs ends. Make a nice trim to the butt ends, add a touch of cement and wrap down all the hairs securely.
Step 9:
Now we need to prepare our hackle. This technique will use only one side of the hackle. We will remove the right side fibers as we are looking at the top, or convex side, with the tip of the feather at the top and base at the bottom. The space at the bottom is trimmed for our tie in. When using this style versus both sides of fibers there is much less bulk from trapped feather. This means you will will get 12-15 wraps of hackle! It floats like crazy and looks really impressive to your fishing buddies.
Step 10:
Tie in the feather with the concave, or back side of the feather facing the hook. Leave just a bit of trimmed quill exposed for the beginning wrap since we still need to add dubbing. Leaving that small amount of trimmed quill will prevent those fibers that typically want to face rearward when you begin wrapping.
Step 11: Now very sparsely dub the head area. This provides some color, but it also acts a bit as a holder for the hackle. Remember, keep it sparse!
Step 12: Finally! Wrap that hackle! 12-15 turns should probably get that space more than full. Keeping enough room for a neat thread head, tie off the feather and add two whip finishes. Add some Loon Hard Head to the thread wraps, let dry and head directly to your nearest, willingest fish. Thanks for tying along!
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