Bodkin / Patterns

Flying Fruitcake

Streamer · Trout · Advanced · 2 versions

Savage Flies dressing

  • Hook streamer, 6-10
  • Thread Red

Materials

  • Tail Red duck slips
  • Rib Flat silver tinsel
  • Body White silk
  • Wing Green over white bucktail
  • Topping Mottled turkey slips
  • Cheeks Jungle cock

How to tie it

  1. Pinch the barb and lay a base of Red thread back to the start of the bend.
  2. Tie in a matched pair of Red duck slips as a tail, deliberately long. Pinch the feathers and hook together, take one wrap, check they sit on top, adjust, then lock down and snap the butts off short.
  3. Advance the thread in wide open wraps to the front. Tie in the Flat silver tinsel at the front and bind it back down to the tail, then return the thread to the front and park the tinsel.
  4. Tie in the White silk floss at the front, snipping the ends level. Wrap it down to the tail and back to the front in one pass; if the strands split, twist them back together. Tie off and trim.
  5. Wind the Flat silver tinsel forward in five or six open turns so white shows between them. Tie off with two or three tight wraps, trim, and bury the nub.
  6. Take the thread to the back of the head. Stack a modest clump of white bucktail, measure it to reach the back of the tail, cord the thread for a better bite, and lock it on top with three wraps plus one tight wrap in front. Trim the butts at an angle.
  7. Stack a clump of green bucktail, tie it in on top of the white a little longer with a pinch wrap and three wraps, and trim the butts. If the wing lies flatter than you want, lift it and take one or two wraps directly underneath to prop it up.
  8. With the thread at the back of the head, tie in a slip of Mottled turkey on each side of the wing as a topping, about wing length, one at a time, holding the first with one wrap while you set the second.
  9. Tie a Jungle cock eye in on each side as cheeks at about 30 to 45 degrees, two wraps each, checking length.
  10. Four-turn whip finish and head cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Tyer Recipe.

Tying videos

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