Bodkin / Patterns

Mahony

Salmon/Steelhead · Steelhead · Salmon · Advanced · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook Fly-tying shank with a short up-eye trailing hook (e.g. #4 up-riding hook) and a weighted bead at the front, 4 (trailing hook)
  • Thread Red

Materials

  • Weighted bead (front of shank)
  • Webby palmering feather (rear station)
  • Oval tinsel (rib)
  • Red yarn / cotton (short underbody)
  • Trilobal dubbing Red ice dub (STS trilobal)
  • Guinea feather Red grizzly soft hackle
  • Neck hackle Red neck hackle (two matched pairs (wings))

How to tie it

  1. Set a fly-tying shank in the vise, lock a bead at the front (a little UV resin or head cement under the bead keeps it from tilting onto the eye), rig the small up-eye trailing hook, and attach red thread.
  2. At the rear, tie in a webby feather and palmer it forward 'backwards' so the longest fibers point rearward: wet your fingers, stroke the fibers back and forth, wind the feather so the fibers sweep toward the tail, and tie it off.
  3. Tie in a length of oval tinsel for the rib and a short length of red yarn/cotton along the bottom of the shank at the rear.
  4. Build a slim, even body of red trilobal (STS) dubbing forward over the shank.
  5. Spiral the oval tinsel forward as an evenly spaced rib and tie it off, then pick out the dubbing so it is fluffy.
  6. Palmer a body hackle forward along the front edge of the rib, stroking the fibers rearward, and tie it off; adjust the individual fibers so they sweep back.
  7. Tie in a red guinea feather and take three tight wraps as a collar, sweeping the fibers back.
  8. Set a matched pair of red neck hackles as wings, one from each side with concave faces together so they stand straight and curve inward, tied to about the hook point; then add a second, slightly larger and longer matched pair the same way.
  9. Trim all the butt ends, whip finish, coat the head with UV resin and cure.

Tying videos

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