Bodkin / Patterns

Sea Swallow

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Beginner · 1 version

Classic Recipe

  • Hook wet fly / spider hook, down-eye, 14-16
  • Thread white 8/0

Materials

  • Silk body White silk (full length of shank)
  • Hackle Very light (pale) feather from the outside of a sea swallow (tern) wing, or pale dun substitute (1 feather)

How to tie it

  1. Run the white silk from behind the eye to above the barb, then forward two-thirds. Keep it clean and bright, as the pale translucency defines this fly.
  2. Wind a slim white body over the rear two-thirds of the shank.
  3. Tie in the very pale feather by its tip behind the eye.
  4. Take 1.5 sparse turns of the soft pale hackle, secure, clip the stem.
  5. Stroke fibres back, build a tiny head, whip finish and varnish.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns