Intruder Style Articulated Fly
Ed Ward pattern
Tied by Bruce E Harang
Materials:
Body Shank:
Originally a hook with the bend and point cut off but now also
tied on Waddington shanks, tubes, and cotter pins.
Hook: Short shank down or up eye bait hook such
as the Owner SSW and the
Gamakatsu Octopus styles in sizes to suit (generally sizes 6 to 2/0 are
used).
Working
Thread: Gudebröd 6/0, White or other light color.
Connection: 30# braided Dacron, fire line, braided nylon, or monofilament as
desired.
Rear Butt: Chenille in the shape of a small ball.
Feelers: About 8 strands of ostrich herl on each side, color to suit.
Rear Hackle:
Amherst pheasant tail fibers spun in a dubbing loop forming a
hackle, color to suit.
Body: Metallic flat braid, color to suit, or similar
Front Butt: Spun deer hair shaped into a ball – used when the herl in front
of it is too soft to stand out from the fly in the current, otherwise
may be omitted.
Wings: Ostrich herl spun in a dubbing loop to create a hackle, color to
suit. Optionally also add a few strands of flash to each side of the
fly.
Front Hackle:
Saddle hackle folded and wound as a wet hackle, color to suit.
Throat
Hackle: Guinea Fowl flank, color to suit.
Optional Eyes: Metal dumbbell eyes tied across the body shank just behind the
eye.
Optional Head: Chenille
or Ersatz wrapped around the dumbbell eyes.
Head:
Finishing
thread (here UTC
70 denier, Purple)
Tying Instructions:
1.
Mount a Waddington shank of the desired length (here 55 mm) in your vise
such that the up eye faces you.
2.
Attach the thread at the rear of the Waddington shank just in front of
the return wire end. White thread is used here as an underbody for ease
of viewing.
3.
Tie in about an 8 to 10 inch piece of hook connector line with the butt
end of about half the length of the line facing forward and the working
length facing toward the rear. Then wrap the butt end around the
Waddington shank 3 to 6 times, then pass the butt end through the shank
eye and pull back tight against the wraps just made. Tie down the butt
with your working thread. Cut off the excess butt material.
4.
Take the working end of the connector line and pass it down from the top
through the rear eye of the Waddington shank, form a loop, and pass the
end back through the rear eye from the bottom up. Now wrap the working
length end around the Waddington shank 3 to 6 times immediately in front
of the previous wraps of the butt end and pass the working length end
through the shank eye and pull back tight against the wraps just made.
Tie down the working length end with your working thread. Cut off the
excess material.
5.
Bring the working thread back to the rear eye of the Waddington shank
and attach a short length of Chenille. Wrap a small ball just in front
of the rear eye with the Chenille, tie off the Chenille and cut off the
excess.
6. Tie in
about eight strands of ostrich herl (color to suit) on each side of the
Waddington shank immediately in front of the Chenille ball wrapping the
working thread back forcing the strands of herl to flare out away from
the Chenille ball.
7. Form a
dubbing loop with the thread and
optionally
wax the two thread legs of the loop, spread a small bunch of Amherst
pheasant tail fibers along the dubbing loop and twist lock them into a
hackle. Wrap this hackle around the shank immediately in front of the
ostrich herl stroking the fibers back forming a swept back wet fly style
hackle.
Note: Amherst pheasant tail barbules tend to stick
together like glue. Using the Steve Gobin of Marysville, WA method of
zipping the barbules between your thumb nail and fore finger before
cutting them off the stem causes the barbules to unzip and stay
unzipped. They then can be more easily used to create a hackle using
methods fully described in Hair-Hackle Tying Techniques and Fly
Patterns by Gordon Mackenzie.
8.
Tie in your preferred body material (here purple flat braid) and
take your working thread forward to about 1 ½ eye lengths behind the
eye. Wrap the body material forward and tie off where the working thread
is hanging. Cut off the excess.
9.
The front butt is used to help hold the front hackles out away
from the fly body when it is swimming. Select a small bunch of deer hair
suitable for spinning and cut it from the hide. If you are only
interested in making a ball similar to the rear butt pre-cut the cleaned
hair to twice the finished hair length and spin onto the shank
immediately in front of the body. By pre-cutting the hair to length you
don’t have to trim it after it is tied on. If you prefer the front butt
to provide a muddler head type with the tapered ends of the hair towards
the rear of the fly, pre-cut to length with after stacking the hair to
even the tips and don’t cut them off. After spinning the hair onto the
shank pack it a bit by pushing the front edge of the spun hair rearward.
If you are fortunate to have
Ostrich herl for Rhea herl that is the proper length so you can use the
herl down to the very stiff herl butts this step can be eliminated.
10.
The so called wings may be constructed in two distinctly
different fashions. The first method is to tie in bunches of Ostrich
herl fibers as you did for the feelers or tie in a pair of long narrow
hackle tips on each side similar to the bunches of Ostrich herl fibers.
The second method (the one illustrated here) is to spread a fair sized
bunch of Ostrich herls sparsely within a dubbing loop and twist the loop
to create an Ostrich herl hackle which is then wound around the shank.
Once you have enough herl hackle wrapped on, tie off and cut off the
excess. This is wrapped on or tied on immediately in front of, and up
against the front butt to force the herls outward away from the shank of
the fly.
To control the various very mobile fibers while you are tying you
can dip your fingers in water and stroke the fibers rearward which will
wet them and keep them out of the way of the working thread and new
materials being added.
11.
Before I mount the front hackle I will whip finish the working
thread and attach the color thread I want to use for creating the head
of the fly (here purple thread). The front hackle is generally a few
turns of a folded saddle hackle feather. Here I am using a rooster
saddle hackle feather from an inexpensive Chinese pelt. Tie in as you
would for any hackle and wind a turn or two and tie off. Cut off the
excess.
12.
The throat hackle is next. You can make a dubbing loop hackle of
Amherst pheasant tail fibers (as shown here) or fold and wrap a few
turns of a guinea fowl body feather (shown in the barbell eye version
below). Tie off and cut off the excess. Whip a small head and the fly is
done.
Note: Amherst pheasant tail barbules tend to stick
together like glue. Using the Steve Gobin of Marysville, WA method of
zipping the barbules between your thumb nail and fore finger before
cutting them off the stem causes the barbules to unzip and stay
unzipped. They then can be more easily used to create a hackle using
methods fully described in Hair-Hackle Tying Techniques and Fly
Patterns by Gordon Mackenzie.
13.
Finished Fly with a hook mounted by looping onto the braided
Dacron loop. This allows you to replace the hook if it becomes damaged
or the point becomes dulled.
14.
Optionally dumbbell eyes and a wrapped head around the eyes
provide a much heavier weighted fly. Here the head is made using Ersatz
and chrome plated lead dumbbell eyes. It will sink deeper, swim more
like a jig, and be a real witch with a capital B to cast. But in some
circumstances it will allow you to get the fly to the fish. This
photograph also gives a good view of the hook and how it is mounted.
16. Below is another variation on the Intruder style of articulated
fly. Here the body is a medium diameter Frodin plastic tube
about 2.5 inches in length with a X-small sized Frodin plastic tube tied in as a
liner flush with the front of the larger tube and extending out the rear
of the larger tube about 0.5 inch. This smaller tube with a
corresponding smaller interior diameter allows you to tie a loop in the
end of the tippet after it is fed through the tube and use the knot
as the means of setting the hook in position.
The materials here are simply the double tube as the foundation or
shank; flat synthetic braid for the body; arctic or silver fox fur for
the feelers/rear butt and for the front butt/wing; Cashmere goat hair
for the collar and saddle hackle for the throat. The fox is spun in a dubbing
loop with a small portion of the under fur and the guard hair to create a
hair hackle. The under fur functions as a binder in making the hackle
and the butt to splay the guard hair outward. Likewise the Cashmere goat
hair is spun in a dubbing loop to create a hair hackle. However, if the
hair is too long for the fly size to allow use of the under fur as a
binder you will have to heavily wax the thread loop to keep the hair
spread out during the twisting.
This fly is extremely mobile and presents a very large sight image in
the water when it swings properly with little tension on it.
© 2010 Bruce E Harang
Options and Tying Hints
A. Ostrich herl can be replaced with similar
materials such as Rhea herl and Peacock herl.
B. Feelers and wings may also have a few strands of
flash material such as Krystal Flash or Flashabou.
C. The working thread and finishing thread may be
the same as is appropriate for the materials used.
D. The chenille is preferably synthetic without a
cotton core so as to limit water absorption and the consequent increased
weight during the cast.
E. Generally those Intruders tied without weighted
eyes swim in a more horizontal plane and exhibit more movement of the
fly. If eyes are desired the use of plastic eyes especially Dolls eyes
(if you can get over the Black Bass Lure connotation are a great
choice).
F. The wings can effectively comprise long thin
saddle hackle feathers in place of, or in addition to, the Ostrich herl.
G. The rooster saddle hackle of the front hackle
may be substituted for with hen cape or saddle hackle, duck or goose
body feathers and the like.
H. The throat hackle may also comprise dyed guinea
body feathers , water fowl body feathers such as Merganser and Teal for
example, Schlappen, hen tail, and the like. Its function is to provide a
bit of color, and movement through the broken color pattern.
I. The front butt may also be comprised of Elk
hair, synthetic chenille, or synthetic yarn and the like as long as it
creates a ball to help hold the wings away from the body during fishing.
J. Some like to make the body out of chenille,
synthetic yarn, or dubbing (with or without a palmered hackle) in place
of the flat woven braid. However, one of the design features and most
effective functions of the Intruder is that is sinks quickly and deeply.
Adding bulk and surface area only retards these desired functions. Where
you want to fish this style of fly in shallow and/or slow water these
additions may be a benefit.
K. Where a chenille, yarn or dubbed body is used
the front butt may not be necessary depending on the diameter of the
body.
L. Finally, anyone that thinks an Intruder is a
good looking fly has no business in the fashion industry ;^)
© 2010 Bruce E. Harang
Contact
guide@beaucatcher.com
