I could use some help with this fly. I’ve fished with it and done well in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now I’d like to make some of my own.
But, it doesn’t tell me how to do the butt (what’s it made of? chenille? how do I get it to taper like that?). Nor does it tell me what the material might be for the wing… post is calf’s hair, lower part of wing above the butt is deer hair, but what’s the part right above that? It probably wouldn’t hurt to leave it off and I bet it will fish just as good.
The body looks like ultra chenille. Slowly bringing the cut end close to a flame, while turning it, will melt and taper the end like that. Use a red marker to color it.
Jay’s right about the chenille, and how to make that. That other material you’re looking at…from the picture, my best guess is that it appears to be a white hackle feather tied in so the flat side of the feather faces the hook shank.
From the Fly of the Month Club page, “Headlight Sally Pattern Recipe: Hook- TMC100, Thread- Yellow 6/0, Hackle- Light Ginger wrapped parachute style, Wing- Upright white calf tail, Body- Light Yellow Floss, Butt- Red permanent marker, Tail- Ginger hackle barbs, Wing- Yellow Deer Hair.”
I agree with previous posters, the under-wing looks like antron, rug yarn, phentex, Zing Wing etc. because the kinks in it are so uniform. Deer hair per the recipe above would be straighter. Opposite to that (although the picture is poor) the post in the recipe is Calf Tail, but the picture shows straighter fibres than that, could it be turkey flats? And lastly, I don’t see a tail of Ginger hackle barbs as the recipe suggests. I wonder where that recipe came from.
In a quick search I did not find a recipe on the 'net. I guess there are two options: 1) buy one and copy it, 2) make the John R variation, call it another name and become famous. If it looked close it would probably work just as well, the triggers appear to be the parachute hackle, the ultra chenille with hot spot and the shiny floss on the hook. Imagine, a fly with two butts - one in and one on top of the water!
Randall Kaufmann’s new book ‘Fly Patterns’ doesn’t have the Headlight Sally but does have a green and a tan Headlight Caddis. The Caddis patterns look almost identical to the Sally. Adjust the color and I think you’ve got it.
Here’s the recipe for the Headlight Caddis, Tan:
Hook: TMC 200R 14-16
Thread: Black 8/0
Antennae: Ginger hackle stem
Post: White calf body
Abdomen: Yellow Flashabou under tan micro chenille
Wing: Tan CDC under tan Z-lon under mottled tan wings & things
Thorax: Tan superfine dubbing
Hackle: Ginger
It probably wouldn’t hurt to leave it off and I bet it will fish just as good.