Tying Instructions
Illustrations by John McKim
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1. Tie in chain bead eyes 1/4 inch from the eye of the hook.
2. Wrap the thread to the hook bend and tie in small bunch of desired color bucktail. Tie 10 to 15 strands of gold, silver or chartreuse Flashabou on top of bucktail to form a flashtail. If a flashtail is not desired tie the flash on the sides as shown in the illustration. Tie in at the hook bend, pearl, gold or chartreuse Diamond braid and wrap forward stopping 1/4 inch from eyes to form the body. Note: overall length of fly is 3-/12 to 4 inches.
3. In the gap between Diamond braid and eyes, tie in a large, webby saddle hackle of appropriate color and wrap wet style to the eyes taking 5 to 7 wraps, folding the hackle barbs back, taking one wrap in front of the previous wrap. Fold the hackle collar back with your fingers and take a few wraps of thread to force them back forming a “Deceiver” style collar. Now tie in a sparse bunch of bucktail the same color as the tail, topping that with 10 to 15 strands of yellow, chartreuse or rainbow Crystal flash, topping that with 10 to 15 strands of peacock herl, topped with 10 strands of peacock Crystal flash. Leave the herl stubs long to be used later as head-topping.
4. Now tie in a shoulder, consisting of one narrow saddle hackle on each side of the fly, length of the wing. Use chartreuse for the lime Punch, Hot orange for the Tropical Punch and natural for the Sabalo Punch.
5. Tie in a long length of medium chenille at the eye of the hook (color depending upon pattern), apply a liberal amount of Flexcement to the area in front of and behind bead eyes. Take one wrap of chenille in front of eyes, criss-cross each way through eyes, take two or three turns behind eyes, bring chenille forward under eyes and finish off in front of eyes with a final turn. Head should be shaped as in the illustration.
6. Fold the herl stubs down over the top of the chenille head like you would a wing case, forming the head topping. Tie off at the hook eye and finish with only as many wraps of thread as needed to form a neat tie-off.