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Bushy's
Dun - Rust
Hook: Tiemco
TMC-100 #12-18
Thread: Dark
Brown 6/0 - 8/0
Wings:
Grizzle Hackle Points
Tail:
Micro Fibbets brown or Hackle Fibres: Split V
Body:
Wapsi Awesome Possum Natural Nymph Dubbing :Rusty brown
Hackle
: Dark Brown
Cock Hackle
| 1/ Firstly
start by wrapping base of thread to a point roughly
one third the length of the hook shank behind the
hook eye. At this point we will tie in the wing
post around which we will wrap our hackle. Make
the wraps nice and tight and with each successive
one snug against the last, just to get used to doing
it. |
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| 2/ Take
your grizzle cape, preferably a cheap, webby one
as used in saltwater tying. This will provide
you with hundreds of wings and also the materials
to make many midge balls without blowing the budget.
Cut off two grizzle hackle points of similar dimensions
and hold them back to back. Measure them off against
the hook shank so that you have a wing roughly
equal in length. |
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| 3/ Tie
the hackle points in as shown (please excuse the
out of focus shot). Wind in being careful not
to flare them out by using too much pressure.
As you wrap away from the feathers towards the
hook eye gradually increase the tension. Trim
off any excess from the feather stub and move
on.
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| 4/ Now
use the thumb and forefingers of your left hand
(for right handed tier) to stand the wing upright
as desired. Pinch it off in this position and
use your right hand to wrap a thread base horizontally
around the base of the wing. Every few wraps throw
one in that goes around the base of the hook as
it will make it all the more stronger. This is
the base upon which the parachute hackle will
later be tied.. |
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| 5/ Take
the tailing material of your choice tie in as
shown. The tail length should be roughly equal
to the length of the hook shank. The tail should
be tied in a SPLIT V configuration. That is when
viewed from above it should be in the shape of
a V starting at the rear of the fly. This can
be done in several ways although with the microfibbets
some simple manipulation as you tie them in or
even after will achieve the desired look. |
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| 6/ Here
we can the see the Split V configuration we talked
about in the previous step. This is a wonderful
technique to use in combination with a parachute
hackle as it helps to float the fly perfectly.
We would recommend though that you tie the tail
rather sparse as the fish see a lot and a bulky
tail often results in refusals, the fly soon looking
twice its size. |
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| 7/ Now
we can start to make the body. Take a small amount
of dubbing and apply it to the thread. Form a
thin rope by dubbing (rubbing the dubbing and
thread between you fingers in the one direction
until it forms a rope). If you are a little more
skilled try and form this as a tapering rope,
starting thin and getting marginally thicker along
its length. |
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| 8/ Use
the newly formed rope of dubbing to construct
the rear body section of your fly or abdomen as
it is widely known in fly tying circles. A nice,
neat body should be the result and if you finish
with something like we have hear you have done
it well. Leave the thread hanging below the wing
ready for the next step. |
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| 9/ Take
a hackle feather of the correct size. Strip any
unwanted bits from the feather and tie in so that
it sits somewhere between parallel to the hook
shank and forty five degrees as well as pointing
to the rear. In this case tie it in so that it
is on the far side of the wing. Then wind the
thread to just behind the hook eye. |
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| 10/ Now
dub a small rope again as in Step 7. This can
again be slightly tapered but either way build
up the front body section (thorax) by wrapping
the dubbed rope back towards the wing. Add more
wraps in the one plane if need be the closer you
get to the wing to achieve the desired result.
Once you have done this remove any excess dubbing
that you may have and go to the next step.
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| 11/ Wrap
the hackle around the wing post as shown. Do this
by winding horizontally in an anticlockwise direction
around the post with several turns of hackle,
each successive one beneath the previous turn.
When you have done this tie off using the thread
to catch the hackle against the base of thread
on the wing post. Hold the hackle down and way
from the fly (on imaginary line between angled
vice head and and wing post base) and use clockwise
wraps around hackle and wing post base to secure.
Pull the thread to the hook eye when done and
finish with a couple of half hitches. |
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| 12/ Here
is the finished product as viewed from above.
You will notice that the parachute hackle is not
overly dressed. Just enough to float the pattern.
Also notice the tapered body starting thin at
the rear and gradually getting more bulky.
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The
Pattern
This is a brilliant pattern
and it has brought us great success over the last decade.
It was sold commercially as Bushy's Emerger and we have
not seen anything about it in print so about five years
ago we altered its name to more suitably describe its
design. Make no mistake this is a dun pattern and one
of the deadliest ones around.
This fly accurately imitates
a number of duns the world over. Especially in the smaller
hook sizes the rusty brown colour combined with low
riding body and prominent wing have seen this fly excel.
One the Goulburn it is among three dun patterns that
take the most fish year after year and it also fishes
well on all other rivers we travel to. The Swampy in
springtime and the Mitta Mitta in autumn are favourite
locations.
Perhaps the best fishing
we have had came via this pattern in December 2001 (last
year) when in search of fishable water we drove the
length and breadth of the South Island only to find
everything in bad shape. Remembering a little tailrace
river similar to our own Goulburn that may not be affected
we drove on and were rewarded with what can only be
described as minimum flows and clear water. This river
has a very large fish population (browns and rainbows)
and we had never seen it like this before. At about
1/10th its usual flow rate we had a peaceful few days
wading and fishing the slow glides where before you
risked life and limb just walking the edges.
The fish were rising from
mid morning until dark; every day. Each pool had maybe
10-15 fish rising and all were in the 1.5 - 4lb range
with the odd better fish thrown in for good measure.
A good dun hatch would gather momentum, weaken, strengthen
etc all day long and the Bushy's Dun size #16 worked
a treat, as it matched the hatching mayfly perfectly.
The first full day we had started off wet but soon left
us with overcast, mild and windless conditions. We have
never seen fishing like this before and may never again.
I was filming most of the
morning and only stopped when I had run out of tape.
In one morning
I shot three hours of footage of a heap of fish being
hooked and landed or dropped and we lost count of how
many fish were landed just shortly after lunch. Our
estimations for the full day, as I fished on after the
film ran out is about 130 fish. I got 17 on the evening
rise alone although most were about 1.5-2lb. At one
stage the land owner came down and watched Geoff hook
about seven fish in just over an hour all on this dun
pattern. Suffice to say that he now has a good supply
of them compliments of a CARE package courtesy of GVFFC
and we will return sometime late this year for a second
round, this time with a lot more film!
We would advise you to
carry this fly in several sizes and in two colours.
The grey
Bushy's Dun that we previously featured is the other
version you should always have handy and is you carry
these versions and a Rusty
Tailrace Dun and Parachute Adam's in the sizes #12
- 18 you will have most hatches covered.
The Bushy's Dun has never
been a secret as far as we are concerned. Those of you
who visit our Fly Fishing Centre would know that we
are pretty generous with our advice. For those of you
who are yet to be acquainted with this pattern take
the time to get to know it. It really is a special one.
~Antony |