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Snails are a food source for trout throughout the year. Having said that they are often overlooked by fly fishers. In colours imitating the naturals in the area to be fished they can be slowly twitched along the bottom or the weed beds with great results. They are also a good ambush fly for trout foraging the margins.

This very simple snail imitation was given to me by Jim Blyton. Jim fishes Lake Eucumbene a lot and this is one of the first flies he ties on with great results.

Materials

Process

A	Alternative hooks used by Jim for this fly is the Gamakatsu C12-H3S. The hook I chose was the Hanak GZW260BL and I picked that hook because it's still relatively heavy wire and it's barbless but it does have a wider gap and longer bite than the Gamakatsu hook. Wind the thread form the 95% position half way down the hook shank. Understanding hooks Tie in the lead wire and take 4-5 turns for a size 14 hook. Adding weight to a fly Continue winding the thread to the bend of the hook.

B	Using the single strand method of dubbing build up an acorn shaped body between the bend of the hook and the 95% position. The dubbing described by Jim was black sparkle dubbing. I have a thing about seals fur and decided to use that and black peacock dubbing mixed 3:1. I have used this on other wet flies with tremendous success. Single strand dubbing method

C	Tie in the red Grall thread at the 95% position. Use the red Grall thread to tie off the black thread.

D	Trim away the black thread and the butt of the red Grall thread and build up a neat red Grall thread head. Neat thread heads Whip finish the thread and varnish the head.

E	Use a bit of Velcro to pick out a few bits of dubbing to add some interest to the fly.

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