Materials required (supplier in brackets)
- Hook: #10 or #12 Barbless jig hook (Hends, Dohiku, JMC, Partridge or similar)
- Head: Gold, silver, copper plated 4mm diameter tungsten beads. Front bead – slotted; Back bead – countersunk (Tungsten beads plus)
- Rib: Small diameter red copper wire (UTC Ultra Wire or similar)
- Tail and Body: Long Cock Pheasant Tail Fibres (Cookshill, Sportfish or Veniard’s)
- Dubbing: Peacock glister (Sportfish, Veniard’s or Hends)
Instructions
- Thread slotted bead onto the hook (non-slotted end first), followed by countersunk bead (countersunk end first) and push them up the hook shank until front bead butts up against the eye of the hook.
- Put on a generous number of thread wraps to secure beads firmly in place.
- Tie in a generous length of copper wire for the ribbing.
- Tear off approximately eight fibres from the pheasant tail and tie them in at the back of the hook shank to make a tail. If necessary pull the fibres through the thread wraps to make the tail the correct length (same length as the hook shank).
- Put wraps around the fibres, to secure them all the way up the hook shank to the back of the tungsten beads.
- Fold the pheasant tail fibres over and secure them all the way back down the hook shank to the tail.
- Wrap the fibres around the shank, all the way back up to the beads, to form a body.
- Take the copper wire and rib the body, in the counter direction to the body turns, all the way up to the beads.
- Tie in the copper and “worry” it to break off the tag end.
- Dub a small amount of glister onto the tying thread and form a “buggy” thorax.
- Finish off with a whip finish.
Fishing the fly
The fly can be fished as the point fly on a team of nymphs, or by itself. It is effective in fast currents and/or deep pools. Because of its weight it has to be cast by using a tension cast. It has been used for catching trout, grayling, marble trout and rainbow trout in rivers.