Tuesday Tie

Hook: Daiichi Size 8 No. 2220 hook
Thread: White Orvis G
Materials: 4" strip of rabbit fur, wire, tungsten cone head, 4 long saddle hackles, arctic fox fur, dubbing
Tools: bobbin, scissors, whip finish tool, vise.


This pattern is my new pattern designed for steelhead. There is enough weight on the fly that it can sink to the bottom of a river where the fish are even in deep, fast moving pools. It can be fished on a dead drift, stripped through pools, or on the swing. The only colors I have tied this in so far are pink/purple (favorite steelhead colors), but like other steelhead streamers, white/black, white/blue, or all white are sure to work. 

Step 1: slide the cone onto the hook shank and wrap wire around the shank. once the wire is wrapped around the hook shank, push it against the back of the cone to secure the cone. Start the thread behind the wire and tie down the ends of the wire.

Step 2: Wrap the thread to the back of the hook shank and tie the middle of piece of rabbit strip down (there should be about 2" off the back and the rest of the rabbit strip going towards the eye of the hook). Once secure wrap the thread towards the eye of the hook.  

Step 3: tie in 2 saddle hackles on each side of the hook shank about 1/8th of an inch behind the cone (the hackles should be tied in so the tips are equal in length to the rabbit strip). Leave the tag end of the last hackle tied down.

Step 4: on the underside of the fly, tie in a pinch of arctic fox.

Step 5: once the pinch arctic fox is secured, tie the end of the rabbit strip in so the fibers are standing up.  Once the rabbit strip is secured, wrap it around the hook shank one time to form a collar (make sure the fibers of the rabbit fur are standing up when forming the collar).

Step 6: Now is when that remaining piece of hackle comes into play.  Take the tag end of the hackle and wrap it around the hook shank in front of the rabbit fur collar to form a second collar on the fly. Once the second collar is formed tie off the piece of hackle and clip the tag end off. 

Step 7: Take a pinch of natural pink dubbing and spin it around the thread. Then wrap the thread 3 times behind the cone to cover up the thread work from the other steps. 

Step 8: whip finish, and apply head cement.