Tail Wood duck flank fibres (Coq de Leon as a variation) (8-10 fibres)
Rib Fine copper wire (1 strand)
Body Pheasant tail fibres (4-6 fibres)
Thorax Ice Dub, orange (generous pinch)
Hot spot Glo-Brite floss no. 5 (no. 11 for the variation) (1 strand)
How to tie it
Slide the tungsten bead onto a scud hook, mount it in the vice and start brown thread behind the bead.
Tie in wood duck flank fibres for the tail, running the thread the whole way back and locking them in just behind the hook point.
Trim the butts and tie in the copper wire. Tie in an extra long piece. It saves fighting with a short tag while you wrap.
Tie in the pheasant tail fibres by their tips. Pinch the fibres together as you tie them if you are tying for yourself rather than for a camera.
Wrap the pheasant tail forward to about the 75% mark. Stop there deliberately: a lot gets jammed in at the front of this fly and the thorax, hot spot and bead all need room.
Counter-wrap the copper wire forward over the pheasant tail in open turns, tie it off and break off the tag.
Dub a generous pinch of orange Ice Dub for the thorax, leaving a gap between the front of the thorax and the bead roughly the width of the bead, that gap is where the hot spot goes.
Put in one half hitch. Pull a long length of Glo-Brite no. 5 off the spool, leave it attached to the spool and lock the end in with three or four wraps, then trim the tag.
Take the brown thread forward one more half hitch, whip finish and cut it away. Behind the bead you want to see nothing but the hot spot, no thread.
Wind the Glo-Brite floss to build the hot spot up to bead level, half hitch it, then whip finish with the floss itself.
Head cement the front. Because the hot spot is tied off with itself rather than with thread, this fly needs the cement.