Beaucatcher Fly Fishing
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Black Dog Salmon Fly
The Kelson version with a nods to Maxwell and Glasso
tied by Bruce E. Harang
Materials:
Hook:
Blind Eye or Return loop up eye salmon, size and weight to suit (here Partridge
Adlington & Hutchinson Blind Eye
CS 6 size 8/0)
Thread: Gudebröd 6/0, White or other light color as working
thread
Tag:
Silver Twist (round tinsel) and Canary (yellow) silk
Tail:
A topping and Ibis (here a red body feather from a golden pheasant)
Butt:
Black herl
Underbody: White floss
Body: Black
silk floss
Ribs:
Yellow silk floss and silver oval tinsel running on each side of the
floss
Hackle: Black
Heron from the third turn of the yellow rib (here Whiting Fish Fur dyed
black)
Wings: Two
red-orange hackles (back to back) enveloped by two Jungle cock nails;
unbarred summer duck; light Bustard,
Amherst Pheasant (here bustard to get the length needed), Swan dyed
scarlet and yellow (here goose shoulder) and
a topping.
Head: Black
herl and Black Gudebröd 6/0
Tying Instructions:
1. Mount a blind eye or an up eye return loop salmon hook in your vise. If you use a blind eye hook continue with step 2; if you use a loop eye hook skip to step 5.
2. Cut a piece of 2 or 3 strand twisted gut so that it is long enough to form an eye of about 1/16" with both ends extending to the end of the hook shank front taper. Form a loop eye by crimping around a bodkin needle and mash or chew the ends to create a taper.
3. Attach the working thread about 1/8" behind the front end of the blind eye hook shank. Then mount the gut such that the legs of the gut lie side by side on the bottom of the hook shank and not along the sides of the shank. The crimped eye loop should all extend immediately in front of the end of the hook shank.
4. Bind the gut to the shank with tight touching turns of untwisted working thread to the end of the tapered ends of the gut creating a smooth thin flat thread wrap. Whip the thread and cut off. Soak the thread and gut in head cement or adhesive of choice and let dry.
5. Attach the working thread to the rear of the hook shank directly above a point one thread wrap forward of the point of the barb.
6. Tie in a short length of silver twist on the top of the hook shank with one turn of thread. Remove the tinsel metal from the core of the tinsel butt which should reach a point on the hook shank directly over the point of the hook.
7. Wrap the silver twist 3 to 5 turns with the first turn on the bare metal hook shank and the rest of the turns on the thread base moving towards the front of the hook. Tie off the tinsel on the bottom of the hook shank with one turn and again remove the metal from the core. Leave a core butt long enough to reach the front of the thread underwrap of step 5.
8. Wrap the working thread in touching flat turns to the hook point position. Burnish the underwrap to smooth it out and pack the thread fibers.
9. Tie in a length of single strand canary yellow silk floss on the bottom of the hook shank by securing with 5 tight thread wraps forward of the tie in point.
10. Wrap the canary yellow silk floss strand in touching turns back to and against the silver twist and then forward to the floss tie in point. You want a very thin flat ribbon of floss so you are in effect "spray painting" two very fine thin layers of yellow over the working thread underbody.
11. Unwrap 4 turns of the working thread used to tie down the floss and then tie off the floss with 5 wraps going forward on the hook shank. This removes a double thread layer at the tie in/tie off point.
12. Tie in a crest for the tail on the top of the hook shank making sure the tail is in line with the hook shank. Then tie in a tail veiling of a red feather, Ibis is called for but due to it being protected and scarce I used a natural red feather from a Golden Pheasant skin.
13. Once both tail and tail veiling are mounted to your satisfaction cut off the butts slightly in front of the tie in point, wrap the short butts down with working thread and return the working thread to the tail tie in point.
14. Tie in a proportionally sized black dyed ostrich herl to the far side bottom of the hook shank and cover the tail tie down area with a herl butt. Tie off the herl on the bottom of the hook shank.
15. Move the working thread forward in touching flat turns about 1/8" and tie in white floss for creating the desired shape and sized underbody. Leave the working thread hanging here. In this example the fly body is about 3 inches long so I built up a tapered body of white Dacron floss to create what to my eye is a proportional tapered body that ends about 1/4 inch behind the front end of the hook to provide room for the wing and head. Tie off the white floss underbody at the rear by wrapping the working thread hanging there backward to the front of the herl butt. Burnish the underbody floss to smooth and compact the floss fibers.
16. Tie in the leading oval tinsel rib on the bottom far side of the hook shank with a single wrap of thread and remove the metal from the core leaving a butt that ends at the back of the floss underbody.
17. Tie in the canary yellow floss strand middle rib on the bottom center of the hook shank with one wrap of thread and leave a tag that reaches the rear of the floss underbody.
18. Tie in the trailing oval tinsel rib on the bottom front of the hook shank exactly as you did the leading oval tinsel rib.
19. Mark the underbody with a fine black marker where the trailing edge of the third turn of rib will fall for the tie in point of the Spey hackle. Then wrap the working thread forward in flat touching turns to this mark and tie in the Spey hackle by the tip and wrap down the tip portion that becomes the butt section to the front of the floss underbody with the working thread.
20. Tie in a long length (or use my floss holder to apply the floss directly off the cop) at the front of the tapered underbody using 5 tight turns of working thread exactly as you did for the canary yellow floss of the tag.
21. Wrap the floss backward as a flat ribbon "spray painting" a layer of black floss as you pass the Spey hackle tie in point pull the Spey hackle forward and wrap the black floss back to the herl butt. Then warp a second thin layer of black floss forward to the Spey hackle, move the Spey hackle backwards, and continue to the front of the tapered body.
22. Unwrap 4 of the tie in wraps of working thread and tie off the black floss with 5 tight thread wraps forward toward the eye. Wrap the thread back to the tie off point and let it hang.
23. Wrap the oval tinsel nearest you forward in 5 turns with the 3rd turn passing immediately in front of, and up against the Spey hackle stem tie in point. Tie off the oval tinsel with a single turn of thread and strip the core as before.
24. Wrap the canary yellow silk floss strand forward in 5 turns immediately in front of and abutting against the leading edge of the oval tinsel previously wrapped forward. Tie off with 3 tight turns of working thread.
25. Wrap the second oval tinsel forward in 5 turns immediately in front of and abutting against the leading edge of the canary yellow silk floss rib. Tie off with 1 tight turn of thread and strip the metal as before. Tie all off with 3 to 5 tight turns of working thread and cut off all the butts.
26. Whip the working thread and cut it off. Tie in the black thread covering the working thread whip finish and let it hang at the tie off point of the ribs.
27. Wrap the Spey hackle forward butting against the trailing or back edge of the rear oval silver tinsel rib and tie off with 1 tight thread wrap. Now take 2 to 3 more turns of Spey hackle in butting wraps and tie off with 3 to 5 tight turns of thread and cut off the butt. The turn of thread before the final touching turn wraps of the Spey hackle locks the spiraled hackle in place and prevents it from coming loose.
28. The wing is now constructed in several steps. The first is to mount a pair of red-orange hackles back to back on the top center of the hook shank. These are enveloped by a pair of jungle cock nails almost as long as the red-orange hackles.
29. Now the married wing slips, here of red and yellow goose shoulder and Kori bustard strips, are put together and mounted as a roof over the red-orange feather wings. These should be almost as long as the feather wings and shaped to maintain the feather wing shape. As is normal in classic Salmon flies all the wing components are tied in at the exact same point on the hook shank.
30. A single strip of Florican bustard is tied in on each side just above the mid-line of the feather wings. Over these are single slips of unbarred summer duck (wood duck).
31. The wing is completed with the mounting of a topping that is shaped to follow the outline of the wing, envelope the top and top rear of the wing and meet the tail which is outlining the bottom and bottom rear of the wing. Here I did not have a top crest long enough to perfectly fit.
32. Because this fly is tied on an 8/0 hook and is over 3 inches in size I wanted a head that would visually balance the fly. Thus, I used a herl variation of the Maxwell chenille head. Mounting a black ostrich herl to match the black ostrich herl butt over the wing butts and forming a tapered black thread finishing portion in front of the black ostrich herl.
33. The thread front portion of the head is soaked with a penetrating head cement (here Griff's Thin) and after it dries is coated with several coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails to create the high gloss glass like final head finish.
34. Note that the front end of the head allows a very tiny portion of the front end of the hook wire to be exposed. This is done by design and helps prevent the thread head from coming loose by "falling off" the front end of the hook shank.
NB: Excellent tutorials of the tying techniques used to tie this and any Salmon flies may be found in the book with DVD, "Twenty Salmon Flies" by Michael Radencich. I highly recommend it to you.
© 2010 Bruce E Harang