Bodkin / Patterns

Comparadun

Dry Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 2 versions

Classic Recipe

  • Hook Standard dry fly, 14-20
  • Thread Olive or Tan 8/0

Materials

  • Tail Microfibbetts or hackle fibers (split)
  • Body Dubbing to match natural (slender)
  • Wing Deer hair (fan-shaped)

How to tie it

  1. Mount hook, lay a thread base.
  2. Tie in split tails, 3-4 Microfibbetts per side, splayed wide with a small dubbing ball or thread wraps between them. Without hackle, these outriggers do the balancing.
  3. Cut, clean, and stack a small bunch of fine deer hair. At the 70% mark, tie it in with tips forward over the eye, then post it upright and fan it into a 180-degree arc across the top of the shank. The fan should reach from one side of the hook to the other, like a half-moon.
  4. Dub a slender body from the bend up to and tight against the wing base, then a turn or two in front to prop the fan upright.
  5. Build a small head, whip finish.

Substitutions

  • Wing instead of Deer hair: Coastal deer hair — More hollow, floats higher; Yearling elk — Fine enough for small sizes, very buoyant; Snowshoe rabbit foot hair — Snowshoe Comparadun variant, floats all day
  • Tail instead of Microfibbetts or hackle fibers: Coq de Leon fibers — Great stiffness and barring; Z-Lon trailing shuck — Turns it into a Sparkle Dun; Dun hackle fibers — Classic, widely available
  • Body instead of Dubbing to match natural: Olive Superfine dubbing — Standard BWO match; Pale yellow Superfine — PMD match; Tan Superfine — General purpose color; Stripped quill body — Beautiful segmentation, coat with UV resin

Other versions

1 more in the app: Fly Fish Food Tie.

Tying videos

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