Hook: Daiichi 2052 #1.5
Thread: UNI 6/0 White
Body: 1st half UNI-Floss orange, 2nd half Sealsfur
Rib: UNI Mylar,Veevus M
Hackle: Black Heron, Mallard
Wing: Orange Whiting Rooster
Head: Loon Hard Head Orange
The first spey I have done with the traditional full feather wing. I got a rooster neck from silverfishing the other day and I just had to do a spey fly with it. Great colors here, easy to tie up and should be super effective in the water!
I had some yellow and green whiting rooster saddle that I bought earlier this year, but hadn’t gotten around to use yet, and since I’m on a GH spree these days I thought about a spey version of the GH that was really buggy and would make a lot of movement. The hackel is of great quality, but I’ll cut down a bit for the next version and create something that is something more sparse than this.
Hook: Alec Jackson Spey #1.5
Thread: UNI 6/0 Red
Tag: Lagartun French Tinsel, UNI-Floss Red
Body: UNI-Floss Black
Rib: Lagartun French Tinsel
Wing: Rabbit zonker
Hackle: Ringneck Rump Hackle
Head: Loon Hard Head Red
I have done some variants of this on tube earlier this winter, and after testing it earlier this week I had to tie this up on the Alec Jackson Spey #1.5 hook as well. The zonker and the Ringneck hackle makes this a brilliantly simple pattern that should be in any box, either for seatrout or salmon.
Hook: Daiichi 2052 #1.5
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Black
Body: Underbody UNI-Floss white, Lagartun Red Claret French Silk Floss
Rib: No-brand gold
Hackle: Heron
Wing: Veniard Mallard Bronze Large
A freestyle spey where I wanted to have as few materials as possible, work on the body profile and try to not overload the fly with too much of the materials I used.
The lagartun silk floss with the gold rib really stands out on this one, the taper of the body is also one that I’m very happy with – it goes smoothly from start to finish. The one thing I could work on is the wing, I did it high over the body (and not really low-set) with purpose, and I’m quite happy with that, but the smoothness of the wing from some angles are not the best, so I’ll put another version up later.
Repetition is the key for many things in life, so also with fly tying! When getting into a pattern that I want to explore, or get some new material that I need to get familiar with I tend to sit down and tie up the same pattern in different sizes and on different hooks to see how it comes together.
This week I have focused on the rusty rat: I have tied it up in 10 different variations on singles, doubles and on tube. The pattern itself is a classic one that should need not much introduction (and there are other sites that can describe the background for this pattern much better than I can).
Of all the variations here there is one first for me: slipstream tubes. I have tied a lot of tubes the last year, but this week I got a good offer on some slipstream tubes from Veniard in different sizes, so when I got into the rusty rat I had to tie some up on that as well.
This a very good exercise that I can recommend for anyone: you get to know the pattern, and at the end of the session you know how the pattern is and behaves in different sizes and on different hooks.
TMC7999 #1/0
TMC7999 #4
TMC7999 #8
Mustad S60-3399A #6
Alec Jackson Spey #1.5
Kamasan B280 #4
Kamasan B280 #8
Partridge Patriot #8
Tube
Veniard Slipstream Tube
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