Bodkin / Patterns

Black Snipe

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 1 version

Classic Recipe

• Hook wet fly / spider hook, down-eye, 16
• Thread black 8/0

Materials

• Body Dark green (bronze) peacock herl (1 strand)
• Hackle Small feather from under a jack snipe wing (1 feather)

How to tie it

1. Start the black silk behind the eye and run to above the barb.
2. Tie in a strand of dark bronze-green peacock herl and wind it forward to two-thirds of the shank to form a slim iridescent body, then tie off.
3. Tie in the small dark jack snipe under-wing feather by its tip behind the eye.
4. Take just 1.5 sparse turns of the tiny soft hackle, secure, clip the stem.
5. Stroke fibres back, build a tiny head, whip finish and varnish.

Tying videos

• Black Snipe — Davie McPhail (YouTube)
• Black Snipe — Robert Smith (YouTube)
• Black Snipe — Black Fly Creations (YouTube)

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