Bodkin / Patterns

Coq de Leon Spider

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Intermediate · 1 version

Lucian Vasies

  • Hook Heavy wet fly hook (Maruto D04 HWW), 10-12
  • Thread Black 90 denier Perdigon flat thread

Materials

  • Ribbing Gold middle (0.14mm wire)
  • Thorax (Sybai Salmon dubbing)
  • Hackle Pardo corzuno rojito (Coq de Leon Rihnon barbs)

How to tie it

  1. Start the black Perdigon flat thread at the eye and wind back to the bend, flat thread builds a glassy, unlumpy body, which is what you want on a fly this bare.
  2. Tie in the 0.14mm gold wire at the bend, then wind the thread forward to the 70% mark building a slim black body.
  3. Rib forward with five or six open turns of gold wire and tie off. On a heavy wet-fly hook the wire also keeps a thread body from being sliced open.
  4. Now the technique the video exists for: instead of winding a hackle, strip a bunch of long Coq de Leon barbs from the stem, even the tips, and tie them in around the hook at the 80% mark so they radiate evenly. This works with any feather whose barbs are too long to wrap. You get spider-length legs from a feather that could never be wound.
  5. Stroke the barbs back and take a few tight turns in front to set the angle, sweeping them along the body rather than standing them out.
  6. Dub a small thorax of Sybai Salmon dubbing behind the eye to bury the tie-in, whip finish, and fish it on the swing. The long CdL barbs breathe on the current and that is what triggers the take.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns