Bodkin / Patterns

Jack Cabe Hopper

Terrestrial · Dry Fly · Trout · Advanced · 1 version

Tyer Recipe

  • Hook 1X-long dry fly hook, #10-16 (12 shown)
  • Thread Black 70 denier (8/0)

Materials

  • Saddle or neck hackle fibers Red saddle hackle fibers (A good clump for the tail)
  • Mole hair dubbing (or buggy tan/brown rabbit) Natural gray-brown squirrel dubbing (Two or three pinches, touch dubbed)
  • Calf tail White or light tan hair (One stacked bunch for the wing)
  • Dry fly hackle Grizzly hackle (One feather, 3-4 turns)
  • Dry fly hackle Brown hackle (One feather, 3-4 turns)
  • Head cement Clear head cement (One drop)

How to tie it

  1. Lay a black thread base all the way back to the bend.
  2. Tie in a good-sized clump of red hackle fibers as a tail a little longer than a hook gap, then trim or bury the butts.
  3. Touch-dub mole hair onto the thread a pinch at a time and wrap a slim body forward to just behind the eye area. Expect about three applications.
  4. Stack a bunch of calf tail and tie it in on top as a downwing lying over the body, almost as long as the tail. Use a pinch wrap, then a few loose wraps to keep it centered before locking it down.
  5. Trim the calf tail butts at a slight angle and bind them down to make a smooth ramp for the hackle.
  6. Lay a brown and a grizzly hackle together, curving the same way, and tie both in at once at the front of the wing with a little bare stem showing.
  7. Wrap the front feather first, three or four turns forward, tie off and trim, then wrap the second feather starting just behind the first and zigzagging forward through it so you trap as few barbs as possible. Three or four turns, tie off and trim.
  8. Sweep the fibers back without flattening them, clear a small area behind the eye, and put in a whip finish (two three-turn finishes if space is tight).
  9. Add a small drop of head cement.

Tying videos

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