COWDUNG VARIANT

Tim Barker - November 6, 2011

I first saw this pattern a number of years ago in Southwest Fly Fishing Magazine, without a tutorial. It is by Colorado tier Eric Pettine and the fly reminded me of some off-the-wall soft hackle that I had tied up for the water pictured below, quite some time ago. That one employed partridge for the hackle, a copper bead behind it, light olive thorax, rusty brown abdomen with a copper brown, wire rib. It was the only pattern that consistently took fish when the water in here was raging from bank to bank. There was no "getting out" in those flows; I was restricted to working the bank on the side of the river I had parked on. That above fly accounted for a lot of Rainbows and one Brown that LDR'd me…it may have been over six lbs.

The Stillwater River, MT. in early July with high run off, making crossing impossible…

 

Materials:

• HOOK: THC 2488, #12-#16
• THREAD: Abdomen, Wapsi Ultra, Olive 70 Denier / In front of bead, Tiemco 16/0, Olive
• RIB: Small or X-SM Wapsi wire, Red with pearl midge flash wrapped around wire 14-18 times (my variation)…*coat with SHAN, Flexament or Aquaflex
• THORAX: Peacock SLF Prism
• BEAD: Black Tung. or Brass, sized to hook, with lead or lead sub. Wraps
• HACKLE: India Hen Back, Brown or Black

The variations on this simple pattern are limitless - abdomen, wire, KF or Midge Flash, thorax and hackle just pick "what floats thy boat."

Place bead on hook, small opening forward…

4 turns of lead or lead sub. and break off ends or use nail clippers…

Attach Ultra thread, wrap and snare wire end (behind bead), wrap towards bend a couple of turns and half hitch…

Tie in wire first, then midge flash, wrap back to deep in the bend of the hook…

Flatten the Olive Ultra thread by twisting it counter clockwise and bring it forward behind the bead – half hitch. Then, twist the midge flash over the wire clock wise 14-18 times and grasp in rubber tipped hackle pliers. Wrap wire and midge flash over the abdomen counter clock wise (towards tier) 5-6 turns…tie off at thorax point, clip wire and midge flash with nail clippers…

Better photo of wire and midge flash prior to wrapping…

Coat abdomen with "Hard as Nails", Flexament or Aquaflex…This is for durability from Trout teeth and a dash of translucence…

Let the coating product FULLY DRY…

Wet the thread with saliva (yummy) and add a THIN portion of Peacock SLF Prism…half hitch thread and add whip finish, 3-4 turns…push bead against dubbing…

Tie in Tiemco 16/0, Olive thread in front of bead then tie in India Hen Neck feather…I use the whole feather, I do not strip it on one side and I tie it in by the butt where the barbules give better action…make 1 1/2 -2 wraps…

Stroke the feathers back after adding a half hitch…wet fingers if it helps – then whip finish holding the feathers to the rear with the left hand (if right handed)…

12. Coat the head with head cement…I like this stuff and push a needle through the eye of the hook while it dries…

Tim Barker / PlanetTrout
https://planettrout.wordpress.com/

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