Bodkin / Patterns

Female Adams

Dry Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 2 versions

Classic Recipe

  • Hook Standard dry fly, 12-16
  • Thread Gray 8/0

Materials

  • Hackle Grizzly & brown hackle (2 feathers)
  • Tail Grizzly hackle fibers (short)
  • Body Muskrat dubbing (sparse)
  • Wing Grizzly hackle tips (2)
  • Egg sac Yellow dubbing (small ball at bend)

How to tie it

  1. Mount hook, lay a thread base to the bend.
  2. Dub a small, distinct ball of yellow dubbing right at the bend. The egg sac. Keep it round and compact, about the size of the hook eye.
  3. Tie in grizzly hackle fiber tail just ahead of the sac, one shank length.
  4. Dub a sparse muskrat body forward to the 60% mark, half the dubbing you think you need.
  5. Tie in grizzly hackle-tip wings, upright and divided with figure-8 wraps.
  6. Wrap grizzly and brown hackle behind and in front of the wings, 2-3 turns each. Whip finish.

Substitutions

  • Egg sac instead of Yellow dubbing: Chartreuse dubbing — Brighter egg sac, more visible; Orange dubbing — Suggests caddis egg sac; Yellow Antron yarn — Quicker, holds shape better
  • Body instead of Muskrat dubbing: Adams Gray Superfine — Easier to dub, floats better; Gray rabbit dubbing — Widely available substitute

Other versions

1 more in the app: Adams Female.

Tying videos

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