Tail Ginger speckled flor de Escobar coq de León fibers
Underbody Fine copper Holographic Tinsel
Overbody Hand-stripped Polish peacock quill, dyed brown
Wingcase Black marker, coated with resin
How to tie it
Slide a copper 3/32" tungsten bead onto a #18 Firehole 317 and set the hook in the vise. Make about 10 turns of .010" lead wire on the shank starting fairly far back, break the ends off flush, then push the lead up into the back of the bead — it centers the bead and builds a little diameter on the shank.
Start the fire orange 14/0 Veevus just behind the lead and trim the tag. Build a thread dam from the bare shank up to the diameter of the lead in as few turns as you can manage, so the thread steps straight up onto the lead, then carry it up to the bead, cover the lead on the way back, and work a little way around the bend without creeping too far into it.
Tail: pull six to eight ginger speckled flor de Escobar coq de León fibers, even the tips, and peel them off the feather. Bind them in about three quarters of a shank length — a little short of a full shank. Wrap forward over the butts keeping the thread as flat and smooth as possible right up to the back of the bead, trim the stubs, and return the thread to the tie-in.
Pick a hand-stripped Polish peacock quill with a particularly dark edge — the dark edge is what makes the body pretty — and tie it in by its tip at the base of the tail with a single turn, letting the tip run forward up the shank.
Catch in the fine copper Holographic Tinsel the same way, letting its tag run forward the same distance. Bind both the tinsel tag and the quill tip forward under a smooth thread underbody up to the back of the bead. The smoother this underbody, the easier the tinsel and quill wrap.
Wrap the tinsel forward in butting turns with no overlap, right up to the back of the bead, and tie it off with a couple of turns.
Grip the quill in hackle pliers and wrap it forward with the dark edge facing the bend so that edge trails each turn. Leave a tiny gap between turns so the tinsel shows through as an inverse rib, evenly spaced all the way to the back of the bead. Tie off with a couple of turns and clip the excess.
Wrap the fire orange thread into a prominent hot spot at the thorax without building much bulk, then whip finish just behind the bead, pull it down tight and clip the thread.
Coat the whole fly with a water-thin UV resin, from right behind the bead to the base of the tail, top, bottom and sides. Keep it thin but take the texture off the quill so there are no raised edges — use the rotary feature to check for lumps — then cure it under the lamp while rotating.
Wing case: draw a small black oval-to-arrowhead shape on top with a marker, from the back edge of the bead onto the front edge of the body. It has no dimension yet, only color.
Drop a little resin onto the marked wing case and let it run down around into one piece, then cook it in place for a raised, humped wing case.
Other versions
4 more in the app: Borisfly (video), Borisfly (video) (2), Borisfly (video) (3), Borisfly (video) (4).