Bodkin / Patterns

Soft Hackle Emerger Craven

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Advanced · 1 version

InTheRiffle dressing

  • Hook TMC 101, 16-22
  • Thread Uni, Gray 8/0

Materials

  • Tails White Flouro-fiber
  • Abdomen Gray beaver or muskrat dubbing
  • Wing White Flouro-fiber
  • Hackle Med Dun Hen Neck Hackle
  • Thorax Gray beaver or muskrat dubbing

How to tie it

  1. Start the gray 8/0 Uni thread a couple of eye-lengths back from the eye, wrap a smooth base about halfway down the bend and come forward again. There should be very little thread on the hook at this stage.
  2. Set three strands of white Flouro-Fiber in by their short end, pinch them in place and catch them with a couple of turns, then fold the long ends back and wrap over them. Folding anchors the fiber - tied in conventionally it pulls out easily because the diameter is so small. Cut the tips a bit shorter to help them separate.
  3. Put a thin layer of gray beaver or muskrat dubbing on the thread and work back; take the first turn of dubbing under the tail so it lifts the tail, the next turn right in front of it, and build a tapered abdomen forward to where you started the thread.
  4. Run the thread up to the hook eye and back again to the front edge of the body, then lay ten or twelve strands of white Flouro-Fiber in on top for the wing and catch it with a couple of turns so it lays back over the body.
  5. Fold the front end of the wing backwards and wrap back over it to the front edge of the body, doubling the quantity in the wing, then trim the wing about even with the bend of the hook.
  6. Prepare a medium dun hen neck hackle: trim the fluff off the bottom and trim a couple of barbs off at the base so you have stubs to anchor. Tie it in along the near side of the hook by those stubs, good and tight, with the inside of the feather facing the body, and move the thread forward.
  7. Grab the tip with hackle pliers, stand the feather up, wet your fingers, close them in front of the feather and draw it through - pinching and pulling hard - to crease the barbs back to one side of the stem. It may take a couple of tries.
  8. Take just a couple of turns of hackle, sweeping the fibers back after each turn and spiralling slightly forward, then tie it off with a couple of upright turns of thread and trim the stem.
  9. Push backwards from the front of the hook with thumb and index finger so the collar sweeps back 360 degrees, then take a few turns of thread back over the base of those wraps to build a small cone that pinches the fibers down and holds the sweep.
  10. Dub a small thorax with the same gray beaver or muskrat. Any time you dub over a taper, start at the front and work back to the base of the wing, then forward again, ending on bare thread just behind the hook eye. Whip finish and trim the thread.
  11. Pull the tails straight past the hook eye and trim all three at about one and a half hook lengths, then separate the fibers out.
  12. Run a wire dubbing brush down the body and pick out just a bit of the dubbing to shag it out and soften the edges into a halo.

Tying videos

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