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This is a variant of a variant and starts its journey with the oldest of true Australian trout flies the Bredbo which was designed around 1896 as a drowned hopper. Two hundred odd years later I tied a Bredbo MK1 variant which incorporated the materials from the Bredbo configured in much the same way as the Dunkeld fly. The MK1 works very well a a middle dropper fly when lock style fly fishing. It has been particularly successful on duller days and but I always thought that it was just not flashy enough for bright days.

I did trial just swapping the gold wire over to gold tinsel but the results were disappointing. Right through this evolutionary process my version of the Dunkeld remained my favourite middle dropper fly when loch style fly fishing. It has an orange seals fur body ribbed with gold holographic tinsel so I tried that form of body but with yellow seals fur for Bredbo MK2 variant.

The MK2 is a great alternative middle dropper lock fly to my tie of a Dunkeld for those bright full sun days and also a very formidable wee wet for faster or discoloured rivers.

Materials

Process

A	Load your bobbin with a spool of yellow thread. Wind the yellow thread in touching turns just past the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a tail of around 8 golden pheasant tippets about as long as the shank of the hook. Tie in a length of gold holographic tinsel.

B	Load your thread with seals fur dubbing and build up a cigar shaped body stopping at the 85% position.

C	Wind the tinsel forward creating six or seven segments along the body of the fly. Tie the tinsel off and trim away the excess. Using a section of Velcro tease out dubbing fibres evenly around the body of the fly. This is a great alternative to Palmering a hackle down the body of many flies.

D	Tie your black thread in at the 85% position locking in place the floss. Trim the yellow thread.

E	Tie in a wing of brown pheasant under feather hackle barbules at the 85% position. The wing should sit above the shank of the hook and extend just beyond the back of the hook.

F	Tie in a hackle between the body of the fly and the eye of the hook. Wet fly hackle The hackle can be tied in by either the tip or the butt depending on the hackle selected. This one is tied in by the tip.

G	Take just one or two full turns of the hackle just behind the eye of the hook and secure it in place with a few wraps of thread. Use a sharp blade remove the excess hackle.

H	Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread. Build up a neat head of thread. Whip finish the thread, trim the thread and varnish the head.

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