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With each new fly dressing
catalogue that falls through my letter box there is an ever-expanding list of
tempting new ‘must have’ materials on offer. Most of these to me are ‘must NOT
have’ as I already have overflowing material draws and so I recently set myself
the challenge to make a practical set of flies, for all conditions, using the
minimum of materials.
 The
common requirement for the construction of all the flies
mentioned in this article is a fox squirrel skin, which
answers all of my questions to qualify as a ‘must have’
material.
Certainly the material to accompany you to a
desert island providing of course you are lucky enough
to land on one with water containing trout.
The
skins have become readily available during recent years,
do not cost an arm and a leg, and amongst other virtues
make great dubbed flies,
arguably the equal to the tried
and
tested fur from
the hare’s ear.
 Hackles and tails can be constructed using the guard
hair and together with a small selection of threads and
ribbings, a vast range of dressing styles can be
achieved. The range includes nymphs, parachute emergers,
wets, hackled dries, winged dries, palmers, Wulffs and
sedges.
For
dubbed bodies with a fine texture the under fur offers a
range of colours, including grey, tan and light buff.
The grey can be used to replicate bodies found on
popular flies such as the Adams and Grey Duster.
To add
another texture dimension to the dubbing a mixture of
equal parts of under fur and guard hair give a very
pleasing result.
An excellent hare’s ear mixture is
achieved by incorporating guard hair with tan under fur.
Take time to thoroughly mix the chosen materials as this
will be rewarded in ease of dubbing and resultant body.
Hackles of a cream, black and tan combination with a
black tip can be constructed from guard hair. The guard
hair must be thoroughly cleansed of all under fur and
best results are obtained using a flea comb available
from your local pet shop.
A hackle is constructed by
forming a loop of thread, inserting the guard hair at 90
degrees to the thread axis and then giving a good spin
with a dubbing 'whirler'. Best results are achieved when
the completed hackle is doubled prior to winding as in
salmon flies, bringing all of the fibres to one side of
the thread. By spinning a long hackle, starting at the
tail and working forwards, bushy palmered patterns are
easily constructed.
When making dry sedges I suggest
that a small vee is cut from the underside of the hackle
to assist the body to sit low on the water. Wings, wet and dry, are constructed from the cleansed
guard hair. For wet flies a small bunch of guard hair is
simply tied low along the back of the fly. This material
can be used to make excellent Invicta wings.
Dry flies
incorporate a larger bunch of guard hair, which is
divided and supported upright by tying thread. To
consolidate the individual dry fly wings two turns of
thread encircle the root of each wing. Most pleasing
wing appearance is obtained by firmly holding the guard
hair whilst removing
the under fur so that the distinct
coloured bars are retained in
alignment.
 
When
constructing nymphs the abdomen and thorax should have
contrasting textures of dubbing to enhance the overall
profile.
The abdomen is constructed from fine under fur whereas
the thorax incorporates a generous proportion of guard
hair which can be picked out to replicate legs.
Legs can
also be replicated by tying in over length guard hairs
for the wing case, pulling forwards, and folding back
the tips at the hook eye.
With
a little imagination and by using the aforementioned
suggestions many variations of fly design can be
constructed. Let your imagination run riot for a short
while and I am confident that both yourself and the
trout will find your results most agreeable.
For further reading see:
All Fur Flies and How to Dress Them
by WH Lawrie (Pelham Books 1967)
Hair-Hackle Tying Techniques and Fly
Patterns
by Gordon Mackenzie (Frank Amato Publications Inc 2001)
John
Smith, Surrey Branch
Flies tied by John Smith
- photography by Colin Spicer
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