Filoplume Mayfly SBS

[ScottP]

Another breathable (the filoplume really comes to life in water) nymph, like the Feather Duster; found this one while poking through Randall Kaufmann's great Fly Tyer's Nymph Manual. It was a very sad day when Kaufmann's Streamborn closed an their catalogs stopped coming; always regretted that I never got to visit the shops.


hook - Tiemco 200R #12
thread - Uni 8/0 camel/UTC 70 brown (I'll explain)
tail/abdomen - marabou
rib - copper wire x-small
thorax - filoplume/aftershaft
wingcase -peacock herl


Part 1



mash barb and attach thread and wire 1 hook eye width back from eye; keep tag end of wire on far side of hook bend





wrap wire back to point above hook barb





measure a marabou feather (abdomen length)





tie down; keep marabou fibers on top of hook and wrap up to thorax





tie in another marabou feather (on smaller hooks, you could do tail & body with 1 feather) by the tips





gather marabou





and wrap body to thorax (helps build thorax up a bit for the filoplume)





counterwrap wire rib up through thorax, helicopter and tie off





tie in some peacock herl for wingcase (original pattern calls for sword fibers but they're a bit flimsy for me)





prepare a filoplume/aftershaft feather (I cut away the bottom; shaft is a bit too thick to spin properly)

[ScottP]

Part 2


as I was preparing to put the filoplume in the split thread, I realized I was using Uni 8/0; great thread for a lot of tying but not one that lends itself readily to splitting. Half hitch and clip off the Uni, re-load the bobbin with the UTC (Danville 6/0 would work great, too) and we're back in action. Split the thread





insert the filoplume





spin the bobbin, trapping the filoplume and creating a "chenille"





moisten fingers and stroke chenille back while wrapping forward (5 shots and I couldn't get 1 to focus)





thorax complete





pull peacock herl forward to form wingcase; tie off and trim





whip finish, SHHAN











Any stray fibers in the thorax can be plucked; you can also shorten/thin out the thorax with a few well placed tugs if you're of a mind.



Regards,
Scott

[flybugpa!]

nice work Scott!

[Longs for Cutts]

That thing is begging to be tied with chickabou or barred marabou for the body and fished as a "whatever" stillwater nymph...

[ScottP]

Wally,

Everything but the wingcase came from a pheasant (pheasabou?). I'll have to see what the chick and barred bou's look like.

Regards,
Scott

[gpatton]

Looks like it will catch fish to me. Nice tie.

[fishbum]

You need to change the title to "aftershaft" not filoplume. Otherwise, nice bug.

[ScottP]

Mr. Kaufmann named it; don't think I'm going to be changing it.

Regards,
Scott

[okflyfisher]

Scott
Awesome tie. You ought to turn some of theses sbs into a fly of the week so they are not lost from the site

[popperfly]

I like ScottP, nice tie......thanks for sharing