Did this for elsewhere but thought you would like to see.
This is a really simple fly but hugely effective.
This is on a size 16 but you can tie it on whatever size you like. Darkest brown silk, waxed, and a starling hackle.
Start your thread and take touching turns over the front 1/3rd of the shank. Tie in a starling hackle by its tip. I like one with a good greenish sheen to it.
Form the body with touching turns of thread. Finish where you tied in the hackle.
Working carefully, as starling hackles are very delicate, twist the hackle and thread together.
Wind hackle and thread together to the head. As you wind tease the hackle fibers back.
Trim out the excess hackle, whip finish and there you have it.
That’s something I never do with North Country Spiders. Its no neater than you get from doubling the hackle. All it achieves is twice the amount of stem used for a given number of barbs. It really isn’t easy to do with starling hackles, they are very delicate.
Must be the difference between starling and partridge. soft hackle flies for bluegill seem to be more effective with sparce hackle, but all I use is partridge and guinea hen. I’ve got my annual starlings nesting under the eve of my front porch, but never asked them for feathers.
Alan,
I like the way you have cropped the pictures.
Although it would no longer be the same pattern, I like the way it would look if you left on the tail. I realize that changes everything about how it hangs and moves in water, but I still like the way it looks.
Ed,
That would be like many of the Clyde style patterns, Where the wing is made from the tip of the hackle feather. Not sure how it would look on one of these as the hackle should be “palmered” over the front 1/3rd. That would push the wing back quite a way. You could tie the feather in the opposite way around and use the head to turn the tip back to form a wing after winding it.
I’m afraid I know very little about the Clyde patterns. Donald is your man for that kind of fly.
I bow to your knowledge Hans. Like I said I’ve come across this style but know little about them. Could we have the recipe for that one please. That dubbing looks very interesting. I think, for here, a touch of red mixed through it would work well, our waters are on the acidic side.
Notable though that the hackle on that is a head hackle. I’m not sure about the way it would look with more of a thorax hackle as is called for on a Stewart Spider.
Glanrhos Palette
Hook: Kamasan B175 #14
Thread: Benecchi 12/0, black
Hackle/wing: Starling
Body: Squirrel body fur, dyed olive; Glister, purple - mixed 1:1, in split thread
Notable though that the hackle on that is a head hackle. I’m not sure about the way it would look with more of a thorax hackle as is called for on a Stewart Spider.
There is a quick way to find out just that, Alan. Go for it
