Bloody butcher – Chatto’s variant

 

Most English wet flies of this type were originally tied as imitations of specific impoundment bait fish or to simply gain the interest of fish and illicit a strike. I have tweaked the original recipe by adding a thorax of claret seals fur. That breaks the harsh lines of the original tie and adds a little bit of extra movement.

Materials

 

Hook Thread Tail Rib Body Thorax Beard Wing
10 to 14 Tiemco 3761 or 3769 Black Red hackle fibres Silver wire Flat silver tinsel Claret seals fur Red hackle fibres Mallard blues or Swamp Hen

Process

 

A
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a tail of about 10 hackle fibres equal in length to the shank of the hook.
  3. If your like me and prefer a slightly thicker body than the original tie then dub on a thin under-body.

 

B
  1. Prepare the tinsel by cutting it off at an acute angle.
  2. Place the thread at the tie in position. The tie in position is always forward of where the tinsel is to start because as you will see in the next step you have to wind it backward first and double back over the first couple of wraps of tinsel to get a neat finish.
  3. Hold the point of the cut tinsel in front of the hook and using the fly tiers pinch secure it into position.

 

C
  1. Wind the tinsel to the bend of the hook just one or two turns and then return the tinsel over itself about 3/4 of the distance toward the eye of the hook.
  2. Tie the tinsel off and trim the excess.
  3. Dub on a loose thorax of claret seals fur and using a bit of Velcro tease out some of the seals fur fibres so that the thorax is bushy.

 

D
  1. Tie in a beard of around ten hackle fibres under the fly between the thorax and the eye of the hook.
  2. Trim the butt end of the beard hackle fibres so that they do not encroach over the eye of the hook.

 

E
  1. Tie in a wing of swamp hen hackle fibres on top of the fly between the thorax and the eye of the hook.
  2. Trim the butt end of the beard hackle fibres so that they do not encroach over the eye of the hook.
  3. Build up a neat head of thread.
  4. Whip finish and varnish the head.

 



Last Updated: February 1, 2011
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Categories: Flies, Loch flies, Streamers & pulling flies, Wee wets
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