Fly Tying Group
Fly of the Month

Step 1. Mount hook in vise, attach thread, wrap a thread base to the rear a little past the drop off position (for this hook, halfway between hook point and barb point) Prepare the orange bucktail by cleaning out the underfur and staggering the ends.  Tie in the orange bucktail, make a few turns under the bucktail at the rear, wrap waste ends down the shank.  Stagger trim the waste ends as you approach the eye return loop. Take thread back to tail tie in position.

Step 2. Select two red neck feathers from the Golden Pheasant. Flatten the stems strip off the fibers on lower part of stem, pair them together concave sides out, and tie them in as a horizontal veiling over the tail.

Step 3. Bind down the waste stems along the top of the hook shank to at least the halfway position. Trim the feather stem wastes.

Step 4. Tie in the oval gold tinsel along the bottom of the hook shank while wrapping the tying thread to the rear.

Step 5. Tie in a hot orange hackle just above the gold tinsel. Here you have a choice. Tie in by the butt with the larger fibers at the rear. This probably mimics the legs of the prawn with the longer fibers to the rear. I used a rather large neck feather and tied it in by the tip after folding it. My intention was to not crowd the hook gape.

Step 6. Wrap the thread back to the rib/ hackle tie in position. Make a dubbing loop and place the orange Trilobal dubbing into the loop (sparsely), spin the dubbing loop (Fig #6), wrap the dubbing forward to the 1/4 shank position, tie off the dubbing loop, wrap the rib forward and tie off, and trim rib waste.

Step 7. Wrap the hackle forward keeping the hackle stem directly behind the oval tinsel. Pull the hackle fibers down and back. Stroke them down and back with pressure to keep them from being along the top of the hook shank.

Step 8. Select and prepare another Golden Pheasant red neck feather. Flattening the feather stem before stripping off hackle fibers helps to keep the feather from rolling when tying it in. Strip off fibers from the stem to get a clean tie in shaft. Tie in the feather with the convex side up. It should veil the rear body and overlap the back of the feather veiling the tail. Bind the stem waste down along the top of the shank.

Step 9. You will want the feather to sit flat along the hook shank.

Step 10. Select and prepare the Golden Pheasant tippet feather to be used as the eyes. The tippet feather needs to be trimmed to form a "Vee" as shown.

Step 11. You might want to run a bead of Dave's Flexament or head cement along the underside of the two sides of the Vee.

Step 12. Tie on the Vee shaped tippet so it sits flat along the top of the hook shank. The black ends of the tippet should be just past the bend of the hook. Bind down the stem waste.

Step 13. The black ends of the tippet should be just past the bend of the hook.

Step 14. Bring the thread back to the tippet tie in position. Tie another body section as done on the first section using a Trilobal dubbing loop, gold oval tinsel rib, and orange hackle.

Step 15. This body section should end at the 3/4 body position. Pull down and back on the hackle. Trim wastes.

Step 16. Prepare a larger red golden pheasant breast feather as before and tie it in so it is flat as possible on top and veils the body and part of the previously tied in breast feather.

Step 17. Construct the third body section similar to the last section by wrapping an orange Trilobal dubbed loop to the front, wrapping a gold oval tinsel rib forward, wrapping an orange hackle forward directly behind the oval tinsel, pulling down the hackle fibers, and tying in a red Golden Pheasant breast feather over the top.

Step 18. Trim all wastes and form a head. Use your thumb and first finger to press the hackles on the bottom up towards the shank and the red Golden Pheasant breast feathers down to make these elements hug the shank.

Step 19. Use a couple of coats of cement on the head. Hopefully the feathers along the top of the shank will be centered along the line of the shank.