Bodkin / Patterns

Greentail

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 1 version

Classic Recipe

  • Hook wet fly / spider hook, down-eye, 14
  • Thread lead grey 8/0

Materials

  • Tail/tag Green silk wound over the rear of the body (few turns)
  • Silk body Lead-coloured (dun grey) silk (full length of shank)
  • Dubbing Fur from a hare's face, very sparse (pinch)
  • Hackle Feather from inside a woodcock wing, or partridge neck, or under a hen pheasant wing (1 feather)

How to tie it

  1. Start the lead-grey silk behind the eye and wind to above the barb. At the bend, tie in green silk and make a few turns to build a bright green egg-sac tail, then tie off. This green tag is the pattern's defining feature (it imitates the grannom's egg ball).
  2. Twist a wisp of hare's face fur onto the grey silk and wind a slim, slightly rough body forward over the rear three-quarters of the shank.
  3. Tie in the chosen mottled hackle by its tip behind the eye.
  4. Take 1.5 to 2 sparse turns of hackle, secure, clip the stem, stroke fibres back, whip finish and varnish.

Tying videos

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