FLYMPH FORUM

This fly is tied here - NOT in the traditional collar hackled version, but Stewart style Spider, it is my preferred spider construction for action and durability.

Materials required...
Kamasan B160, #14
Yellow Pearsall's silk waxed and waxed again
Golden plover hackle, long enough of fiber to reach almost into the bend, NO longer, long enough to reach the barb is fine.
tiny pinch of dark fur from root of hare's ear

1. take four turns around the hook iron, just behind the hook eye.
Push the thread right up behind the eye and cut off excess.
Lay in a spoon shaped feather to suit the hook, shiny side down, on top of the shank.
Trap the hackle with four turns, break off hackle butt and wind the silk to opposite hook point.
Dub hare fur on to the silk


2. wind the dubbed hare to 1/2 way point of body, let thread hang


3. Find the tip of the feather - run your fingernail down the far side of the hackle stem to 'break' the set of the fibers on the stem to assist winding


4. Wind the hackle three or four turns to arrive at the thread hang point and tie the hackle tip in with two turns, be gentle or you will break the hackle tip


5. Wind the thread wiggling it to and fro, back and forward through the hackle to the head


6 Groom back any unruly fibers and take a turn of silk to secure


7. Whip finish, cut off hackle tip and cut off silk


Go fish.

Great step-by-step photos, Roy! Thanks for sharing the underlying construction. Looks like a very durable method of a tying a proven fish-catcher. I'll add some of these to my box shortly.

Roy,

I agree that flies tied in this manner are durable. With the hackle stem reinforced I've never had the hackle come unwound on a spider. Lovely pattern. Now I need to dig out my Golden Plover.

REE

Thanks guys.

This is also not the way Stewart tied his spiders, he twisted the hackle around the silk into a rope before winding it in.
I have a vise so life is easy.
I reckon the end product is equally durable.

Absolutely beautiful. It does raise a question, though. With such a small amount of dubbing showing, have you fished them both with and without any dubbing and find that the dubbed ones catch more?

CM_Stewart wrote:Absolutely beautiful. It does raise a question, though. With such a small amount of dubbing showing, have you fished them both with and without any dubbing and find that the dubbed ones catch more?

Not so far but that would make a good experiment next spring
The dubbed flies will sink less quickly, I guess, besides being more 'haloed'

hmm,
now what have I gotten myself into !

I quite like this method of securing the hackle. Must practice it.

Hey Roy, very good.
I am a guide specialising in use of spider patterns and I tie a lot of the traditional spiders this way. They are very effective in rough ware fishing them upstream.
Interestingly, in W.S Roger Fogg's book - The Art of the West Fly - he has a plate of lies tied just as you have done this one.
By the way, I don't worry about winding the hackle around the thread, there are now much simpler way of achieving the same result.
Philip

That the way tie them.
There is a difference the dark one for me catches more fish.

Gary

WOW!! That is nice.