Wings:
Swiss Straw/Raffia in colour to suit (smokey grey if
avaiable)
1/ First
off wrap a nice even base of thread starting from
near the front of the hook and extending to the
point where you are going to tie in your first part
of the fly, the tail. This point should be roughly
level with the barb on the hook. Once this is completed
and you have a good bed of thread proceed to step
two.
2/ Take
a small piece of the silk you have chosen to over
wrap the thread body you will construct. It should
be flat and reasonably wide for best results. Try
to match up to the colour of the natural with
this silk as this is the reason we are using it
and not just making the body out of thread. Trim
any excess.
3/ Now
build up a body of thread as shown in the accompanying
photo. Notice how this is done to take on the shape
of the the abdomen of the ant. This will allow us
to then wrap the silk over it and get the exact
colour needed with the exact shape needed which
you couldn't do by just using silk.
4/ Wrap
the silk in a clockwise direction around the hook
shank (away from you) Just one nice, even layer
should be ample to get the desired look without
adding too much bulk. Once this is complete and
you see something similar to the photo to the right
tie off and trim any excess. Now go to step 5.
5/ This
is the only tricky part. Take a piece of straw approximately
3-5 mm wide and 5 cm long. Bend it back over itself
as shown in the photo so that you have an inside
angle of approximately 90 Degrees. This will form
your fouled up wings that are such a dominant feature
of this particular insect. The way this wing is
being held in place is the way it should be tied
in.
6/ This
is really just a different view of the previous
step. In the horizontal plane it attempts to highlight
the fact that the wind should be tied in flat with
the body. Tie in over a slightly wider fashion than
usual (i.e. not the same plane) and do so with a
few gentle turns to start allowing you to move the
wing to and fro making sure it is perfect before
tying in with tight wraps.
7/ Once
again we are still on the same step but we are now
viewing it from above with the wing tied in as desired.
Notice the tie in point is over quite a wide area
as opposed to a normal, in a single plane, tie in.
When your pattern looks like this move to Step 8
where we will repeat the process on the other side
of the hook.
8/ Take
another piece of straw roughly equal in dimensions
to the first piece. Fold as we did earlier to get
that right angle in it and then tie in as in the
previous step with the first wing. Once again use
the the first wings tie in point to match it up
and start with loose wraps to make sure the wing
sits correctly. The photo shows what your pattern
should look like.
9/
Now tie in one more piece of silk to finish
off the forward section of the body. Once this s
done trim the excess and wind the thread forward
building up another bulbous section over which the
silk can be gently wrapped in the next step. When
you have done this add a half hitch for strength
and move to Step 10.
10/
Wrap this silk forward over the forward
section of body you just made out of the thread.
This is very easy to do but some car is needed to
make sure you retain the body shape of the thread.
Once this is done add a couple of half hitches and
remove any excess. Trim to finish and for those
that just feel that they have to add a whip finish.
11/
The last step involves trimming the wings
to shape. Use your own discretion here and don't
worry too much about getting them exactly right.
These insects sits on the surface with their wings
all fouled up and it is more the presentation and
reasonably accurate size, shape, profile that is
most important. Have a look at the next two steps
for some different views.
12/ From
below you can see the obvious ant like profile of
this fly. The colour is spot on and the wings are
a dominant feature as with the natural. This body
will sit just in the film and give the fish a very
good look at it and with many of the features being
spot on this makes it very effective.
13/
Thisshows how the fly
will sit in the water. The wings have a large surface
area and therefore the pattern is hard to sink when
everything lands right. These wings keep it on top
of the film just like the naturals.
The
Pattern
We had some mild thunderstorm
activity last night and our minds all turned to a possible
termite hatch. We therefore are featuring this humble
little pattern for all of you who like to tie your own.
Antony developed this rather
basic fly this Spring in response to the massive hatches
we had during the the extremely muggy conditions we
experienced. This luckily coincided with low water levels
on the Goulburn and some pools had 25 fish rising. One
thing that was noticed was that a large number of these
insects were sitting in the surface film or above with
their wings fouled up. This is something that we tried
to mimic with these straw wings. While this means it
doesn't float well for long periods it does mean an
accurate imitation for a rising fish which will usually
mean only one or two drifts anyway. On average it should
be dried out but gently squeezing the water from the
wings every dozen casts. Sometimes it sits all wings
spreadeagled and sometimes they get twisted and contorted
like many of the naturals. The key thing is that the
fish like it and that it has all the major triggers
of the natural. Segmented body, large soft wings and
the correct colouration.
While it isn't the perfect
fly and it doesn't work all the time it is another one
to have in the box for those few and far between days
when termites are the only thing the fish will look
at.
