Bodkin / Patterns

Fat Ass Dragon

Nymph · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 3XL-4XL streamer hook, 8
  • Thread Olive 6/0

Materials

  • Eyes Black/olive material (bead-chain)
  • Tail Olive ostrich herl (short marabou tuft)
  • Shellback Olive thin skin mottled (thin skin or turkey)
  • Body Olive ostrich herl (coarse dubbing)
  • Rib Copper thorax stripe (fine wire)
  • Legs Olive emu feather (barred rubber)

How to tie it

  1. Mount a 4XL streamer hook, start olive thread, and lash bead-chain eyes a third back from the eye for a keel.
  2. At the bend tie in a short tuft of olive marabou as a stubby tail. Dragon nymphs have blunt abdomens.
  3. Tie in a wide olive shellback strip and a length of coarse olive dubbing.
  4. Dub a fat, tapered abdomen over the rear two-thirds, building it wide and flat. It is a Fat Ass for a reason.
  5. Pull the shellback over the abdomen, bind it, and rib with fine wire in 5-6 open turns for segmentation.
  6. Figure-8 a couple of olive rubber legs at the eyes, splayed out to the sides.
  7. Dub a bulky thorax around the eyes, pull a short shellback tab over the head, and whip finish.

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