Trucos de montaje

Spinner Wings
By A.K. Best

The spent mayfly or spinner can be the most important fly pattern in your dry-fly box. Don't ever leave home without them because a spinner fall can occur any time of the day. Some mayflies mate before dawn, followed by a morning spinner fall. Others may mate during the day with an afternoon or evening spinner fall. Trout will often prefer the spinner to the dun with both are on the water.

I think white hen hackle tips are the ideal material for the wings on spinners since they become slightly translucent when dressed with a waterproofing agent. Hen necks are becoming easier to find in fly shops, and the quality if improving with each passing year. I've tried white poly yearn segments, but they just don't maintain their shape as well, oftentimes looking more like a tiny white puffball than a pair of wings. Tie the hen wing spinner as follows:
    1. Tie the tail as described in tailing the dry fly, but make it about a half hook gap longer than the hook length and splay it.

    2. Wrap the body forward to within two hook-eye spaces of the eye of the hook.

    3. Measure the wing tips to be at least two hook-eye spaces longer than the entire hook, and select feathers whose width is slightly larger than the hook gap. The natural spinner slways has wings that are a little longer and wider at the dun stage.

    4. Tie in the hen hackle-point wings exactly as described for tying the dun.

    5. After dividing the wings with your forefinger (photo above) press each wind down until it's horizontal. Figure-eight-wrap the wings as described above.

    finished spinner

    6. Apply a slightly darker dubbing to your tying thread and figure-eight-dub in front of, behind, and between each wing. Save only enough room behind the eye for the head and whip finish. ~ AK

Credits: Excerpt from Production Fly Tying by A.K. Best and published by Pruett Publishing Company. You can find a review of the book: here.

Please check out the Fly Tying Section, on the Bulletin Board, here at FAOL too.

If you have any questions, tips, or techniques; send them to publisher@flyanglersonline.com

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