Bodkin / Patterns

CDC Hare's Ear Bug

Nymph · Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Intermediate · 1 version

Lucian Vasies

  • Hook Demmon DGH 900 BL, 10-16
  • Thread Fluo orange Tyer's choice

Materials

  • Body Natural case (Mad Rabbit Dubbing or Spiky Dubb)
  • Ribbing UV white material (UV ribbing fibre)
  • Hackle Natural hackle (CDC)

How to tie it

  1. Start fluo orange thread on the DGH 900 and run a base to the bend, leaving a couple of turns of bare orange showing at the rear as a tag.
  2. Tie in the UV white ribbing fibre at the bend.
  3. Dub a shaggy, tapered body of natural Mad Rabbit or Spiky Dubb forward to the 70% mark. Keep the dubbing loose. The loose fibres are what make this a bug rather than a smooth nymph.
  4. Rib forward with the UV white fibre in five or six open turns and tie off. White UV against a natural body gives a subtle flash that reads as trapped air rather than tinsel.
  5. Tie in a CDC feather by the tip and take two turns as a soft hackle collar, then stroke the barbs back over the body.
  6. Whip finish a small fluo orange head. Fish it on a dead drift or let it swing up at the end. The CDC breathes on the lift.

Tying videos

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