Last week I was talking with John at my local fly shop. John knows I’m a fan of spiders (soft hackles). Although spider flies probably represent emerging nymphs, or drowned adults, and just about anything but an actual spider, he suggested I try tying a few with big fat bodies, to look like a real spider. If they are called “spiders” there should at least be a “spider - spider”.
So, here’s what I came up with. It’s a very simple tie. The abdomen is black acrylic yarn pulled apart and dubbed on the back 1/2 of the shank. The wing case is a slip of hen pheasant quill (ok, spiders don’t have wings, but the case creates the top of the body), and the legs are a palmered starling body feather (I just had to use starling as I only just got the cape the week before!). The “body back” is used to hold the legs down underneath and helps create the profile between the large abdomen and the body. I got this idea from one of the demostrator tyers at the fly tying exhibition held at the fly shop a few weeks ago. He demonstrated his large water spider pattern and he does this.
Anyway, I was pleased with the results so thought I would post it here. I’ve tied a few up in black and one claret one. Brown, with woodcock for the legs, might be good too.
Good morning Jeff.
Where abouts on the Starling body, did you take the feather from ?
The reason for asking is I recycled a few Starlings about a week ago with my 22, and normally I only take the neck cape feathers, however this time I removed most of the skin on one bird and the neck capes on the others.
And found that there are numbers of different feathers over the body.
If anyone is recycling (great use of the word) starlings the whole bird is of tying use. Neck and body feathers are great for soft hackle (some have a green tinge and others purple), the feathers are also called for as wings on some flies from from the UK, slips from the secondary wing feathers as well as tail feathers make great bunched, rolled or slip wings on wets.
I always have a couple of complete starling skins on my tying bench.
Jeanne, I would think this would fish well dead drifted near a grassy bank. Especially if there’s a bit of a breeze that might be blowing spiders, beetles, etc into the water.
Uncle Barry, I used a body feather with the green tinge to it. The hook is a size 12. As REE has mentioned, and I agree fully with him, the entire skin is worth recycling. All the feathers are of use pretty much.
Hmmm, I suppose while spider flies are not usually representative of spiders, this spider fly is not really very representive of spider flies because the body case covers the hackle! So, spiders are not spiders and this spider is not a spider either, but the spiders are the other way round! This could get very confusing (and silly)!
