Don's Fly Tying - Fred's Fly

This past June, while fishing a series of small lakes just east of Winfield, BC, I won the Telephone Fishing Derby for the 7th time! At just over three pounds, it was the biggest fish in the 30 year history of our derby. And yes, it was caught on the same fly that I used for the winner the year before, a copper chironomid! However, the purpose of this story is not to dwell on my exploits but to provide you with tying knowledge of a fly that produced several large fish for Fred McCrae, including the second place winner. Fred claims that his father tied this fly with the only ready material that he had some fifty years ago, deer hair! It was a winner then and still is today! We will take a break from the Bill Nation series this month in order to examine an excellent rainbow trout producer, simply called "Fred's Fly".

Materials

• Hook--Mustad 9672 size 6 to 10
• Tail--None
• Body--Spun deer hair
• Ribbing--None
• Thorax --None
• Hackle--None
• Head--Spun deer hair clipped slightly longer than the body
• Wing--None
• Thread--Invisible mending

Instructions

Cut a small piece of deer hair and spin it to the hook shank. Push it back to the hook bend and spin another clump ahead on the shank, then push it tight against the first clump. Continue doing this until the hook shank is covered to the hook eye. Now comes the delicate and messy part. Trim the body with your tying scissors as straight as you can, leaving a fairly large head slightly longer than body. The final step is to colour the body with a red permanent marker pen.

Fred thinks this fly represents a dragonfly nymph. He fishes it on a wet line and finds that the deer hair tends to keep the fly above the weeds when slowly trolled. For whatever the reason, the Winfield Plateau rainbows just love to hit this fly!

Your comments are welcome at "dhaaheim at telus dot net"