Bodkin / Patterns

Film Critic

Dry Fly · Emerger · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Classic Recipe

  • Hook Curved scud/emerger hook, 14-20
  • Thread Olive or to match hatch 8/0 or 70-denier

Materials

  • Shuck Amber Antron yarn (small wisp)
  • Tail Coq de Leon fibers (6)
  • Abdomen Turkey biot, olive or PMD (1)
  • Wing post White or dun Z-Lon / para post (1 loop)
  • Hackle Dun or grizzly dry-fly hackle, stacker style (1 feather)
  • Thorax Superfine dubbing to match (small amount)

How to tie it

  1. Start thread mid-shank on the curved hook and tie in a sparse wisp of amber Antron trailing halfway down the bend as the nymphal shuck, plus six Coq de Leon fibers a half shank length long.
  2. Tie in a turkey biot by its tip at the bend and wrap it forward in overlapping turns to the 65% mark for a neatly ribbed abdomen. The curved hook sinks the abdomen and shuck below the film while the front floats, the whole point of the fly.
  3. Tie in a loop of Z-Lon upright at the 65% mark as the hackle-stacker post, angled forward over the eye.
  4. Tie in the hackle and wind 4-5 turns up and back down the post loop (Quigley's 'hackle stacker'), so all the fibers stack in a horizontal plane above the thorax.
  5. Dub a small thorax under and around the base, then pull the post loop forward and down over the thorax and bind it at the eye, leaving a forward-slanting wing.
  6. Whip finish and cement. Dress only the wing and hackle with floatant, never the abdomen.

Tying videos

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