{{+1}}Rubber legged olive gotcha{{-1}}

This is a popular rubber tailed Gotcha type fly which is very similar to other ties for rubber legged gotcha flies. It has it's place in your bonefish fly box for those occasions where the bones shy away from the bright colours of most other bone fish flies.

Materials

Hook	Threads	Bead	Tag	Body	Beard	Legs	Wing
3X strong Gamakatsu SL11-3h	Uni big fly thread throughout except for 3/0 Olive for the whip finish	Double pupil black and white dumbbell	Hareline flat diamond braid	Hareline flat diamond braid	Hareline flat diamond braid	Silicon legs in olive or motor oil colour	Fox under-fur dyed olive

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns from the 95% position to about half way to the bend of the hook and then forward to a point where you can tie your dumbbell eyes in. I like those eyes to be tied in about the same distance from the back of the eye of the hook as the diameter of the dumbbell eyes. Understanding hooks Apply a little head cement to the tie in before moving on.

B	Then continue winding the thread to the bend of the hook in tight touching turns. Tie in a length of flat diamond braid along the top of the hook shank from the bend of the hook to behind the dumbbell eyes with enough trailing behind the bend of the hook to become the tail of the fly and with around 15cm of flat diamond braid hanging over the dumbbell eyes to become the body and beard of the fly. Use you bodkin to tease out the fibres in the flat diamond braid to represent the tail.

C	Wind the flat diamond braid down the hook shank to the bend of the hack and then back to the dumbbell eyes in tight touching wraps forming the body of the fly. Figure of eight wrap the diamond braid around the tie in of the dumbbell eyes and tie it off in front of the dumbbell eyes. Pull the flat diamond braid backward at about a 45% angle and cut off the excess directly above the bend of the hook.

D	Use you bodkin to tease out the fibres in the flat diamond braid. This will become the beard of the fly.

E	Turn the fly over in the vice and pull the teased out diamond braid backward over the bottom of the dumbbell eyes and extending backward partially obscuring the point and bite of the hook. Lock the beard into position with a couple of wraps of thread and a couple of half hitches.

F	Take two lengths of the rubber or silicon leg material and tie them in on the front side of the fly with the legs extending above and beyond the back of the fly.

G	Tie two similar legs in on the other side of the fly.

H	Select a small bunch of fox under-fur and strip out any guard hairs and bases fluff. Tie that in as a wing directly in front of the dumbbell eyes and extending backwards so that the wing will further obscures the point and bite of the hook. Do a couple of half hitches in the Uni big fly thread so that it's locked into place. Swap over to you 6/0 olive thread and build up a neat head of thread between the eye of the hook and the dumbbell eyes. Whip finish the head, trim the thread and paint the head with head cement.