Body Snake River Fly Zero Gravity dubbing (1 composite loop)
Legs Rubber tab legs (5 strands, halved)
Head Whiting Farms freshwater cape, badger orange (1 feather)
Glue Wapsi Z-ment (a generous dab)
Head cement Semperfli No Tack UV resin (a drop)
How to tie it
Mount a Gamakatsu B10S size 2 in the vice and run Semperfli Nano Silk 6/0 back to the bend. Use the strong thread deliberately. It is standing in for the stainless wire of a dubbing brush, so it has to be ultra durable.
Tie in two Whiting Superbou feathers for the tail, measured about half the shank length to the ends of the wispy fibres, leaving an eye and a half of bare shank at the front for the head; keep the tail on the sparse side, since you can always trim a tail down on the water but you cannot add fibres to it.
Saturate the two feather butts with Z-ment so it soaks down to the hook shank, then take securing wraps forward almost to the eye to slim the underbody down.
Form a dubbing loop by twisting rather than splitting the thread, so you get a neat point to feed material into, and hang a weighted loop tool in it.
On the bench, stack the Zero Gravity dubbing three or four times and spread it out in a line, then lay five rubber tab legs, cut in half, randomly through it.
Pick the whole lot up with tweezers and slide it into the loop, positioning the thread through the middle of the material.
Spread the material evenly along the loop, then spin slowly to begin with, spinning fast at the start throws marabou fibres out of the loop and wastes material.
Brush the brush out, give it a few more spins to secure anything you have loosened, then palmer it forward, preening the legs out as you go so they end up pointing in every direction; that randomness is what makes the pattern buggy.
Stop an eye and a half short of the hook eye, tie the loop off with a wrap in front and behind, trim it out, sweep the fibres back and clean up the tie-off point.
Brush the body hard in every direction, backwards, forwards, up and down, to free the fibres and legs that got matted into the core.
Wrap the thread up and down to build a small nose, then tie in a badger orange freshwater cape feather taken from the back of the cape, keeping some webbing in it for flow.
Secure the stem with three or four wraps going backwards, lift the tag, jump the thread in front and trim it out, then take a wrap up and one down to make certain the feather cannot pull free.
Wrap the hackle laid back on its own backside at an angle so the stem lands on the thread and both sides of fibres sweep back, making the first turn count for pinning the legs and marabou rearwards.
As you reach the eye, let three or four turns drop into the gap where the eye meets the shank, then take a wrap behind and several in front to close the stem down, whip finish and seal the head with Semperfli No Tack UV.