I figured, since I had a knee revision back in September, I could revise some flies I rediscovered when I found a fly wallet I had tucked into a dark corner after returning from a trip to Canada. Short story. I had discovered Bob Popvic's <strong>Semper Fleye</strong>. I modified the pattern, by using less saddle hackle in the tail and replacing the webby saddle hackle he used for the body/head of the fly with alternating wraps of estaz grande or other long fiber sparkle chenille with spey hackle. I was tempted to call it a "<strong>Spey Fleye</strong>" but resisted. I also added eyes and initially an epoxy head, and later used Liquid Fusion. On some I added props. I had success with the all white ones and never really got around to trying the other colors. It's has been ten, maybe fifteen years since I tied them. The epoxy heads had turned yellow, the Liquid Fusion heads had collapsed around the eyes, and the white ones with props and just caused twisted lines, so I removed them in the revisions though some of the beads are still on the fly. What I did was wrap down the material behind the original head tight and secured them with Super Glue. Removed the old heads and eyes. Built new thread heads, eyes, and on some where I still had the right color Spey hackle added a couple more wraps to replace the ones where I had lost the hackle in the head removal. New eyes, heads made with UV resin. They ain't pretty, but the spey hackle breathes when the fly's sinking in the water, great motion when retrieved. They're tied on various brands of long shank straight eye streamer hooks size 1/0 to 4/0. Here's a few of them.
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