Bodkin / Patterns

CDC Summer Spinner

Dry Fly · Trout · Grayling · Intermediate · 1 version

Lucian Vasies

  • Hook Barbless dry fly hook (Maruto D23 BL)
  • Thread Brown

Materials

  • Tail Indio Rubion or Indio Medio (Coq de Leon barbs)
  • Body Tobacco (One long CDC feather)
  • Wing Natural grey dryer lint (2 Troutline Selected CDC feathers)

How to tie it

  1. Start brown thread at the eye and wind back to the bend, keeping the base thin. A spinner is a fly of almost nothing, and every wrap shows in the water print.
  2. Tie in a few Coq de Leon Indio barbs as a long splayed tail, at least a shank and a half. Stiff CdL fibres hold the flat, spent posture on the surface.
  3. Tie a long tobacco CDC feather in by the tip at the bend and wind it forward in touching turns to the 65% mark as the body. A CDC body floats the rear of the fly on its own, which is exactly what a spinner needs since it carries no hackle.
  4. Stroke the body barbs back and secure, then tie two natural grey CDC feathers in crosswise at the 70% mark with figure-eight wraps so they lie flat out to each side as spent wings.
  5. Trim the wings to roughly a shank length each side and even them up. The silhouette is the fly's entire identity to a fish looking up.
  6. Build a small head and whip finish. Angle the wings slightly up instead of flat and the same fly fishes as a dun, so one tie covers both stages of an evening rise.

Tying videos

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