Bodkin / Patterns

Roberts Drake

Dry Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook Standard dry (Mustad 94840), 8-14
  • Thread Yellow 6/0

Materials

  • Pheasant tail fibers Natural pheasant tail fibers (3-4 for tail)
  • Deer belly hair (wing post) White calf body hair (1 small clump)
  • Deer hair (body) Light tan/natural deer hair (1 pencil-thick clump)
  • Hackle Ginger hackle (1 feather)

How to tie it

  1. Start thread mid-shank. Stack a small clump of white deer belly hair and tie it in standing upright at the 65% mark; post the base with tight thread wraps.
  2. Tie in 3-4 pheasant tail fibers at the bend for the tail, one shank length long.
  3. Clean and stack a pencil-thick clump of light tan deer hair; lay it along the top of the shank with tips at the tail and butts forward, and bind at the bend so the tips flare slightly as a tag.
  4. Spiral the yellow thread forward through the hair in 5-6 open turns to the post, compressing the hollow hair into a segmented, floating body.
  5. Trim the forward butt ends close and cover with a few thread wraps.
  6. Tie a ginger hackle in at the post and take 4-5 turns horizontally around the base, parachute style; secure and snip.
  7. Trim the white post to about one shank length. Whip finish and cement the post base.

Tying videos

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