Hackle Light cree, or light ginger and grizzly mixed
How to tie it
Start the Tan thread on the dry fly hook (Matt ties a 12, 1x long). Align two light dun hackle tips for the wings and catch them in, judging the length so that, propped up, they reach the top of the hackle or a touch beyond. The hackle on this fly runs long, one and a half to two hook gaps.
Prop the wings upright with thread and trim the barbs that poke forward (they always do with hackle-tip wings). A couple of X-wraps between the tips to splay them semi-spent; the hackle may push them back together later, which is fine.
Tail: Dun hackle fibers from the same feather, tied in at the bend and long in the Catskill way. Snip the butts.
Catch in the small Oval gold tinsel a little behind the wings and bind it back; this keeps the body thin.
Wax the thread and dub a thin noodle of Pale cream fox fur underfur (a light fox, not red fox, whose underfur runs grey). A few guard hairs are fine; the body is meant to be a little fuzzy. Wrap a slim body right up to behind the wings.
Rib with four or so turns of the Oval gold tinsel and tie off.
Hackle: one grizzly and one light ginger with long barbs, the substitute for cree. Tie both in behind the wings and snip the stems.
Wrap the grizzly first, one feather at a time as Valla does: two turns behind the wings and two in front. Catch it off.
Wrap the light ginger up through it the same way for a heavy, bushy hackle. Catch off and trim.
Sweep everything back from the eye to clear a flat spot and whip finish before the barbs spring forward again. Snip or singe any barbs trapped pointing forward.