Bodkin / Patterns

Beadhead Crystal Soft Hackle

Nymph · Wet Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Consensus of AvidMax and Tim Cammisa

Materials

  • Bead Bead head (material differs between sources, see unknown)
  • Tail Pheasant tail fibers
  • Body Peacock-coloured crystal dubbing (SLF Prism peacock in Cammisa, Ice Dub Peacock Black in AvidMax)
  • Soft hackle Hungarian partridge

How to tie it

  1. Start the thread right behind the bead and lay locking wraps down the shank to the back.
  2. Tie in a good clump of pheasant tail fibers (10 to 15, tips aligned) measured to the hook shank as a thick tail, and bind it down over the shank.
  3. Noodle the peacock Ice Dub with wax or a little water and wrap it forward almost to the bead to form a full tapered abdomen.
  4. Tie in a couple of strands of peacock herl and wrap them as a collar thorax, leaving room in front for the hackle.
  5. Prepare a Hungarian partridge feather: pull the fibres rearward, strip the excess from the base, and tie it in by the small tag, a little above the bare stem.
  6. Wrap the partridge forward two turns with the mottled side forward, preening the fibres back, and tie off right behind the bead; trim the excess.
  7. Whip finish, optionally finishing with a couple of turns of peacock dubbing to hide the thread.

Tying videos

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