Miss Knobby X              Click for Full Size image of the MIss Knobby X

Hook:  Tiemco 5263 # 8 - 12

Thread: Nylon Monocord stretch fabric invisible thread (from haberdashery)

Body: Yellow chenille

Overwing: Pheasant breast

Legs: Orange Pheasant tippets

Legs Mk 11: Rubber from Occy Strap

Head: Deer Hair, mixture of green, natural, yellow and brown

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 piece of material, the chenille to form the body of the hopper. This point should be roughly level with the barb on the hook. Once this is completed go to the next step. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 1
2/ Tie in a fair length of chenille. However this time don't worry about removing the excess, instead give it a few wraps of the thread and leave. This will assist in getting the required bulk needed with such patterns. When you have done this proceed to the next step.

 

 Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 2
3/ Take the thread and hold it away from the hook. Keep it taught and then take the chenille in your other hand. Wind the two together so that you have one combined chenille/thread rope. Then wind it forward towards the hook eye with each successive turn ahead of the last. Go all the way to the hook eye. With this example we didn't take the chenille all the way instead adding some more later. Tie off and trim excess. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 3
4/ In one turn take the thread back approximately 1/5 the hook shank length back towards the rear of the fly. This is where the rest of the materials will be tied in and is where the rear of the head will be. Select two good sections of Pheasant Tippets and tie in on each side of the hook. This will represent the orange on the Hoppers Legs and should be equal to the hook shank in length. See next step for more detail. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 4
5/ See that the Pheasant Tippets are roughly equal in length to the hook shank. Also they are tied in at about 35 Degrees to the hook shank when viewed in the vertical. This is the perfect example. Try and get the two bunches roughly level. This is reasonably easy if you use the black banding to measure them off against each other. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 5
6/ Next find a good pheasant breast feather, better known as a church window feather. Tie it in so that it is flat over the top of the fly. This is similar to many other patterns such as the Craig's Night-time. The overwing should be large enough so that it extends just over the rear of the fly when tied in. Go to the next step to see how it should look from above. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 6
7/ We have not added any more materials in this shot. Notice how the legs are just obscured by the church window feather. This is the perfect size although ideally it would be aligned slightly better although with such a big fly it really doesn't matter. Trim the excess feather stub and take a couple more turns to secure. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 7
8/ Now get the legs that you sourced by cutting an Occy (Octopus) strap up. Tie one on each side of the hook forming an X shape. The tying in of this material should not be in the same plane. Tie these legs in by wrapping in an approximately 3 mm wide area. This will allow you to tie in the head and not get the legs are messed up. Trim the legs to meet size requirements. Front smaller and rear. Move to Step 9. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 8
9/ Take several colours of Deer Hair. Make sure it's the hollow type that flares and therefore floats well. We like to use natural, brown, Olive/Green and Yellow. Pinch them off together making sure you have them long enough to equal the hook shank. Rough stack it in your fingers as we don't want it neat. Pinch it so that the tips are fairly even and the stubs can be clipped as shown. measure against hook if you have to. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 9
10/ Clip the deer hair close to your fingers as shown. This will be the very front end of the head. Don't worry if at this stage you think you may have too much hair as you can clip it to suit later. Bring it in place above the hook holding it there between the thumb and forefingers of your left hand. See the next step for more info. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 10
11/ This is the view from the front. Pinching the hair in place you can see that the hair is kept on top of the hook. We will not be spinning it as in other fly patterns. To ensure this you MUST not spin the hair. To do this don't wrap the first wrap around the hair. Take the thread from directly below and split the hair up the middle as shown. Pinch in place with the left hand's fingers and use the right's to tie in. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 11
12/  Initially splitting this hair helps to prevent it from spinning. Now that it has been split start wrapping with the thread. Make sure you wrap in the SAME plane and do not let go of the hair with your left hands fingers. Don't let it spin. Use between three and six turns, each on top of the last to lock it in place. You can then take the thread to the hook eye and add a couple of half hitches or whip finish to complete. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 12
13/  Now that the head is secured we can start to trim the fly to look the way we want it to. Start by making a blunt bulky head. See illustration to the right and the one below for side and top profiles. Trim flat on top and sides and take this back well into the body of the fly. Be careful not to trim off the legs or any previously tied part of the fly as having to start again now can be heartbreaking. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 13
14/  This is how the fly should look from above. Not the way everything is balanced i.e. even length of legs both rubber and orange pheasant tippets and the perfect positioning of the overwing church window feather. Also note how well the different colour deer hair comes together and the distinct shape of the head from which the knobby part of the name is derived.
15/  Another view of the fly this time from below. See how the chenille extends all the way to the hook eye. Once again notice how everything is in balance e.g. the legs. The clear monofilament thread we use for this fly is not only incredibly strong (great for deer hair patterns) but also almost invisible. Also the mottled church window feather represents the camouflage of a hopper very well. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 15
16/  The very last step is to remove the fly and get a marker pen. Geoff uses a brown one and marks bands on the legs every few millimetres by actually rolling the leg on a flat surface using the nib of the marker. This way ensures that you get a good even mark right around the rubber legs. And there you have it. The latest from Geoff's fly box. Tying the Miss Knobby X Step 16

The Pattern

Geoff recommends that it be fished with a PLOP! As close to banks, logs, rocks or other pieces of structure. If there is no immediate response, a twitch of the rod tip will cause the legs to vibrate. In slower water leave 15 - 20 seconds because sometimes the fish need to develop courage to attack it! Lift of and plop it off again. For quicker water fish as per normal hopper methods picking it up and putting it down frequently. 

Hope you enjoy this new addition to our fly of the week page. This pattern is really working well so tie some up and give them a go. 

Footnote: since putting up this page we have had a lot more success with this fly on the Swampy Plains River in NSW and also on the South Island where it was the only fly that would work in certain rivers. Tie one up today and give it a try.

Regards

Antony