variation on a theme
Following on from my last post, I mentioned a pattern that has proved quite useful of late especially in situations where you want a point fly to help slow the drifting flies down a bit in overcast, blustery conditions. This soft hackle wet fly isn’t overly heavy which I find allows me to slow the drift down as planned while also allowing the flies to fish close to the surface. Sometimes, that is just what is required.
There is an old saying: on a dull, overcast day fish a dark fly and on a bright, sunny day a bright fly (or something along those lines anyway!). So when thinking of how to tie this fly I decided I could do much worse that to use the Black Spider as a starting point. The Black Spider is also a favourite fly of mine. I had two good reasons there then!
I wound the body (black thread) and tied in the rib: Soft Wire #33 red wire (Small). I used close turns of wire, almost touching as this would be the only weight for the slim soft hackle wet fly. I carried the wire turns into the thorax area of the fly. I then gave the fly a small dubbed thorax of natural mole to help keep the black hen hackle fibres in place and slightly flared. When wet, the wire rib shows nicely through the dubbing and gives a nice effect to the fly.
It is still early days yet, but so far this soft hackle wet fly has been quite useful and it is a nicely versatile, slightly weighted fly for the point position.
Red Rib Spider – Body: black thread Rib: red wire (small) Thorax: mole (or similar) Hackle: soft black hen
