Tarlington’s Corduliid (aka TC)

 

I have fond memories of this fly from my early days of fly fishing. One of my favourite destinations was 'Frying Pan' which is the closest lake Eucumbene destination to Cooma where the TC was designed by Cooma resident Frank Tarlington. On one of those memorable trips to 'Frying Pan' I was introduced to one of the 'gun' regular fly fishers named Stan. When the mudeyes were on Stan would forgo all other flies and stick to a fly that he absolute confidence in , the TC. I have had a lot of respect for that fly ever since.

This is a fly that lends itself to being tied in a number of colours including brown, black, olive, grey but brown as set out below is my favourite.

Materials

Hook Thread Rib Body Wing Head, thorax and legs
Tiemco 3761 sizes #8 to #10 Black 6/0 Flat silver tinsel Natural black lambs wool or seals fur dubbing Black duck, English partridge, ring neck pheasant or similar Deer hair

Process

A
  1. Starting at the 80% position wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a length of flat tinsel along the top of the hook shank.

B
  1. Dub on an acorn shaped body on the rear 3/4 of the hook shank.

C
  1. Wind the flat tinsel forward forming 4 or 5 body segments.
  2. Tie the tinsel off in front of the body of the fly and trim the excess tinsel.

D
  1. Tie a wing consisting of 2 to 6 feathers with the tips extending beyond the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie the thread off between the 75% and  80% position and add a drop of head cement to that knot. This is important because as you tie in and manipulate the deer hair in the following steps you may otherwise loosen the tie in of the wings.

E
  1. Take the thread forward just onto the bare hook shank i.e. around the 81% position,
  2. Select a small bunch of deer hair and stack it in a deer hair stacker to get the tips all aligned.
  3. Hold the deer hair in your right hand and work out where to tie it in so that the tips will partially hide the point of the hook.

F
  1. Tie the deer hair in with two loose wraps and then apply pressure to the thread to cause the deer hair to spin round the bare hook shank and flare out.

G
  1. Tie in additional bunches of deer hair as you move toward the eye of the hook taking time to press each bunch back down the hook shank so that it is stacked tightly against the previously tied in bunch of deer hair.
  2. I have tied 3 bunches of deer hair to fill up the bare hook shank between the 81% position and the eye of this hook.
  3. Take your thread forward through the final bunch of deer hair and build up a small neat thread head.
  4. Whip finish the thread and varnish the head of the fly.

H
  1. Take the fly out of the vice and using a sharp pair of scissors or a blade trim the deer hair into a bullet shape. Take care not to trim away your wings and to leave some of the deer hair tips to represent legs.