Bodkin / Patterns

No See Um

Dry Fly · Midge · Trout · Intermediate · 4 versions

Note: Contested against a published dressing: This is the source behind our attached Fly Fish Food video, but the dressings disagree. The published No-See-Um is a hackled midge — its defining feature is an oversized grizzly hackle tied with an upswept technique, on steel-grey thread, with no tail and no shuck. Source: Fly Fish Food — "No-See-Um" tying tutorial (pattern by Phil Bair, Utah) — https://www.flyfishfood.com/blogs/dry-fly-tutorials/no-see-um

Reference Recipe

  • Hook Standard dry fly, straight eye (e.g. TMC 100), 18-24
  • Thread Black 14/0

Materials

  • Tying thread Black thread (body)
  • Deer hair Natural dun/gray deer hair (small pinch)
  • Superfine dubbing Black dubbing (tiny pinch (optional))

How to tie it

  1. Start thread behind the eye and lay a smooth base to the bend; the thread IS the body, so keep it flat and build a slim, slightly tapered abdomen back to front.
  2. Return thread to the 70% mark, then clean and stack a small pinch of deer hair. No more than fills half the hook gap.
  3. Bind the deer hair in at the 70% mark tips forward, then post it upright with turns banked against the front so it stands as a single fan wing.
  4. Spread the wing into a 180° comparadun fan across the top of the shank so the fly rides flush in the film.
  5. Dub a sparse pinch, half what you think, and figure-8 a tiny thorax around the wing base to lock it upright.
  6. Whip finish at the eye and add a pinprick of head cement.

Other versions

3 more in the app: Fly Fish Food Tie, variant 1, Fly Fish Food Tie, variant 2, Fly Fish Food Tie, variant 3.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns