Complete White River Fly Fishing Website

Make a thread base before tying the real eyes on. Go to my Taneycomo Sculpin to learn how to tie hour glass type eyes on.

Measure the tail to be ¾ the length of the hook. I’m using one piece from strung marabou. I like to tie mine all the way up the hook to really secure it and to keep the body even. Tie it in at the back and advance the thread over it as you wind up.

Keep the wraps close as you can and wind forward. This will help tie all the material down instead of any loose strands sticking up.

You thread should be up front. Advance it some where in the middle and tie in the chenille and wind the bend. You really don’t have to peel the material from the core unless your tying with tinsel chenille. Keep the thread hanging it the back for the next step.

Step 4.

I’m using the wider strip called the “Texas cut”. I think it adds more bulk for such a large fly. Standard cut is a little too sparse and doesn’t make the fly look as full. Measure the strip to hang off the back two 2x the length of the hook shank. Split the hair on the hide and tie it down with four tight turns of thread. Lift up on the hide and tie right in front of it. This will help lock in the strip and prevent it from shifting to the side of the hook. Advance the thread back up just behind the hour glass eye. Remember to leave room for the collar and gill.

Now wrap up the chenille keeping the wraps side by side. Make sure the chenille is laying back as you wind forward. You might need to stroke it back after each turn. Tie it off and cut the excess. Notice where I stopped in the picture. We will tie back on the flash just a little bit as we tie in the collar and gill.

Now you can do this step two ways. I’m picking the easier route since I’m using the palmer chenille that won’t allow me to wrap inbetween it if I was tying the rabbit strip matuka style. Fold it over and tie it down with enough wraps to know you secured it. Tie back on it a little to accomplish that. Trim any excess and tie any of the hide you see sticking out from making the cut. This will act as a foundation to tie in the collar and gill.

Select a feather from the very top of the cape if you’re looking at it. Those will be the longer ones out of the bunch. Peel off any loose shaft from the stem. You only want to see the straight barbs and not anything that looks like marabou. 

Tie in the feather and wrap it around until you have a full collar. I can usually get about two full turns. Cut the excess and tie back over it a little to force it to lay back.

Note: You want the feather to blend in with the rabbit as far as the length goes. Usually after your done wrapping it in, the tips should meet up with the tips of the rabbit hair.

Cut a small amount of red wool. You only need a little bit, and believe me, a little bit goes a long way. If you tie too much, when you go to cut it you’ll notice it flares out (bushy look). You don’t want that, instead you want it to still look like a strand instead of a clump. I hope that makes since. Tie it in the center of the clump you cut. Cut the front piece off and measure the back to be long, so you can still see it once you've tied in the other color of wool for the head.

Now you should be right up to the eye, but still behind it. Now you’ll form a head with the white wool. Tie the first strand on the top and then one underneath. The first strand will be the longest because you want it to blend in with the wing (rabbit). The way you tie this in is the same way you tie in deer hair if you were stacking it. You’ll first tie the clump on the top then rotate the hook and tie the underside. Remember not to pull any of the wool going forward until you’ve tied both clumps in. After you’ve done this you can pull the clumps facing forward back and tie in front of them. You should still be behind the eyes after completing this step.

Tie in the center of the two clumps. Just showing you an upclose on the step.

Advance the thread right in front of the eye. 

Whip finish the fly.

Note: When tying with wool, you should only make two turns around each clump you tie down. So four total for each set of clumps. You can make more turns once you’ve pulled it back to tie in front of it.

Use a curved shank pair of scissors to trim it to shape. Start with the top and cut from the front to the back. You can trim the head to your desired shape. Make sure you cut at and angle instead of straight across. Just play with it until you get it to the shape that you're looking for. Once you're done you can add some glue to the thread and glue on the eyes.

The finish product!!!

Here’s the other color it comes in. I also tie a all white version as well.