Bodkin / Patterns

Crystal Hunchback

Nymph · Trout · Advanced · 2 versions

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 1XL curved nymph/scud hook, 14-18
  • Thread Rusty brown 8/0

Materials

  • Bead Gold or copper slotted tungsten bead (1 tungsten, 5/64-3/32 in)
  • Tail Mallard flank (wood-duck dyed) (small bunch)
  • Flashback/shellback Pearl mylar tinsel (1 strand)
  • Body PMD/amber (fine dubbing)
  • Legs Mallard flank (fiber tips folded back)
  • Thorax PMD/amber (fine dubbing)

How to tie it

  1. Slide the tungsten bead to the eye, mount the hook and start thread behind the bead.
  2. Tie in a short mallard-flank tail about half a shank long, sparse and fanned.
  3. Bind a strand of pearl mylar at the tail to serve as the flashback shellback, leaving it long to pull forward later.
  4. Dub a slim tapered abdomen forward to the 60% mark, keeping it thin. Half the dubbing you think.
  5. Tie in a small bunch of mallard flank on top by the butts so the tips reach back as a wing case, then dub a fatter thorax to just behind the bead.
  6. Pull the mallard tips forward and split them to each side for legs, binding at the bead.
  7. Draw the pearl mylar over the top to form the humped shellback and bind it behind the bead.
  8. Whip finish behind the bead and add a drop of cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Beadhead.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns