Bodkin / Patterns

Curlew

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 1 version

Classic Recipe

  • Hook wet fly / spider hook, down-eye, 14
  • Thread orange 8/0

Materials

  • Silk body Orange silk (maroon or yellow also work) (full length of shank)
  • Hackle Small feather from the outside of a young curlew wing (or brown partridge substitute) (1 feather)

How to tie it

  1. Run the orange silk from behind the eye to above the barb, then forward two-thirds.
  2. Wind a slim orange body over the rear two-thirds of the shank.
  3. Tie in the mottled curlew (or partridge) feather by its tip behind the eye.
  4. Take 1.5 to 2 sparse turns of hackle, secure, clip the stem.
  5. Stroke fibres back, build a small head, whip finish and varnish.

Tying videos

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