Bodkin / Patterns

Dotterel Dun

Dry Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 1 version

Classic Recipe

  • Hook Light wire wet fly, 14-16
  • Thread Yellow 8/0 silk

Materials

  • Body Yellow tying silk, lightly dubbed with dun fur (sparse)
  • Hackle Dotterel wing feather (substitute: starling underwing) (1)

How to tie it

  1. Start the yellow silk behind the eye and wrap a slim body two-thirds of the way down the shank and back.
  2. Touch-dub a wisp of dun-coloured fur onto the silk for the front third only. The body should stay translucent, silk showing through.
  3. Tie in the soft ash-coloured hackle by the tip; dotterel is now protected, so a feather from inside a starling's wing is the accepted substitute.
  4. Wind just 2 turns of hackle, sparse is the rule with North Country spiders, and stroke the fibers back.
  5. Whip finish a small neat head.

Tying videos

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