UV cruncher

 

More of a class of fly than a fly in itself because you will find UV crunchers tied a all sorts of colours from black right through to dun colours and pale olives. I like this particular tie because it incorporates peacock herl which is one of my favourite fly tying materials.

Uvcruncherg

Materials

 

Hook Thread Weight Tail Body Thorax Hackle
8-14 nymph or streamer hook Black Lead wire - optional Ginger or brown hackle fibres Peacock herl UV dubbing Cock-y-bonduu hackle

Process

 

A
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a tail equal to the length of the hook shank. Resist the temptation to make the tail too bulky and too long.
  3. I don't add weight to my crunchers but if I was I would do that at this stage using 0.010 lead wire wraped around the front half of the hook shank. For size #10 hooks add about 10 wraps and for size #14 half that.
  4. There are of course other ways of adding weight to a fly.
UVcrunchera

 

B
  1. Tie in a length of medium silver wire along the top of the hook shank to the bend of the hook.
UVcruncherb

 

C
  1. Tie in peacock herl along the top of the hook shank to the bend of the hook.The number of stands of peacock hearl will bepend on the size of the fly and the quality of the herl. For this fly I have used 4 strands of peacock hearl.
Uvcruncherc

 

D
  1. Form the herl into a herl rope and wind that forward in touching turns to the 80% position creating a cigar shaped body.
  2. Tie the herl off and trim away the excess herl without cutting the thread.
UVcruncherd

 

E
  1. Load the thread with a small amount of UV dubbing material.
Uvcrunchere

 

F
  1. Dub on a thorax of UV dubbing material between the herl body and the 90% position.
  2. Tie a hackle in by the tip.
UVcruncherf

 
 

G
  1. Take 3 or 4 full turns of the hackle directly behind the eye of the hook and secure it in place with a few wraps of thread.
  2. Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread.
  3. Build up a neat head.
  4. Whip finish and varnish the thread head
Uvcruncherg