Eyes Foam cylinder cut from a 1in foam block (1, halved)
Tail Whiting Farms Superbou, black (2 feathers)
Flash Krystal Flash, pearl (1 strand, folded)
Body Semperfli Ripple Ice Dub peacock with black Ice Dub (1 dubbing loop)
Mohawk Superbou tag ends from the tail (1)
Resin UV resin (a drop)
How to tie it
Start black 12/0 waxed thread behind the eye of an Ahrex FW560 size 10, work back eight to ten wraps, then bring the thread forward half an eye length and trim the tag.
Cut a foam cylinder from a one inch block with a cutting tool in a drill, cut into open air, not down onto a table, or you will dull the blade, and free it with a bodkin rather than your fingers.
Halve the cylinder; one cylinder makes two flies. Hold the half across the shank with a single wrap through its middle, then twist it square and figure-eight it like a set of dumbbell eyes, dropping the thread into the same central groove each time you come up and over and countering any tilt with figure-eights the other way. Do not crank on it. It is only foam, the resin at the end is what really locks it.
Tie in a black Superbou feather for the tail at about one and a half times the overall shank length, keeping it sparse, with hard wraps back and a couple of over-unders to pinch the marabou into one place.
Add a second feather with the tips lined up to thicken it. Rather than cutting the ends square, pinch them, fold them over your scissor blade and tear them, which keeps the taper.
Secure the tail all the way up to behind the booby eyes but do not trim the tag ends. They become the mohawk between the eyes later.
Fold one strand of pearl Krystal Flash in half so you get two per side, extending just past the marabou, wrap it up the near side, over the top in a flying V, and down the far side, securing it at the butt of the tail before trimming it slightly longer than the marabou.
Make a three to four inch dubbing loop, advance the thread to just behind the eyes and hang a spinning tool in the loop.
Pull out eight to fourteen strands of Semperfli Ripple Ice peacock and double that quantity of plain black Ice Dub, mix them by stacking loosely several times like shuffling cards, then rip the mixture in half, full-length ice dub is too long for this loop.
Insert the dubbing into the loop, spread it very sparse with no clumps over about three inches, and spin it.
Palmer the brush forward with touching wraps, minding the hook point, brushing out any clumps as you go and stroking the fibres back so you do not have to spend time brushing later. Do not over-tension the tool or it will snap off the loop, if it does, grab the twisted loop with hackle pliers and carry on.
With about half an inch of brush left, bring it up and over between the eyes and tie it off at the hook eye rather than behind the eyes, then clean any ice dub out of the head area.
Pull the reserved marabou tag ends up and over between the eyes as a mohawk, hold it with one wrap, lift and take a couple of wraps underneath, one more behind and a couple in front.
Keeping thread tension, trim out the stem and excess marabou, take a three-turn whip finish, then secure the head and the foam eyes with UV resin.