Bodkin / Patterns

Buford

Streamer · Musky · Pike · Intermediate · 2 versions

Note: This recipe has not been verified against a documented source, or disagrees with one. Treat the materials and steps as unconfirmed.

Musky Fool Fly Fishing Co. dressing

  • Hook AHREX TP610 trout predator STR. 6/0
  • Thread VEEVUS GSP THREAD - Black 150 DENIER

Materials

  • Tail Flash HARELINE BARRED FLASHABOU MAGNUM - FL Pink / Black
  • Body Flash HARELINE KRYSTAL FLASH - FL Cerise

How to tie it

  1. At the bend, tie in 6-10 long schlappen or saddle feathers splayed around the shank, with a generous veil of flash. This is the tail and most of the fly's length.
  2. Move forward and reverse-tie a clump of bucktail: tips facing FORWARD over the eye, then fold the hair back over itself and lock it with thread wraps so it flares into a hollow cone (Popovics' hollow-tie).
  3. Repeat reverse-tied bucktail stations up the shank, each clump flaring back over the last, mixing colors top and bottom; the hollow construction gives a huge profile that stays light and sheds water on the backcast.
  4. For the final head stations use the stiffer hair from the base of the bucktail, pushed back hard with a hair packer to form a blunt, water-pushing head. The head is what makes a Buford wobble, glide and hang in the water on the pause.
  5. Build a smooth thread head, whip finish and soak the wraps (and the head's thread dams) in cement or thin UV resin.
  6. Optional: articulate two of these sections on a shank for a 10-12 inch '747' version.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Classic Recipe.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns