Bung fly – Chatto’s tie

 

In the broader definition of the term any indicator fly is a "bung" fly and fishing with an indicator fly is often referred to as fishing the bung. More tightly defined however a bung fly is a fly tied specifically for use as an indicator. Bung flies are used in both running and still water and typically they are used to suspend one or two heavier 'bait' flies at various depths where fish may be holding or feeding.

The key elements for a successive bung fly are of course viability and buoyancy. The following tie use untreated sheep wool complete with it's natural oils for buoyancy and bright polar fibre for viability.

Materials

Hook Thread 1 Thread 2 Body Wing
Knapek dry #10 Red cotton Black 6/0 fly tying Raw sheep wool Polly yarn

Process

A
  1. I use cotton to tie the main part of this fly as to get it right you have to make very firm turns of the thread and fly tying thread often brakes.
  2. Wind the cotton from the 95% position to half way along the hook shank.

B
  1. Select a wad of raw sheep wool. If your in the city you may need to impose on a country cousin to help you out here. Don't separate the wool. It's important to leave it as it came off the sheep's back so that its dense and will hold air and its natural oils will repel moisture.

C
  1. Position the wad in on top of the fly with the wad extending over the back of the flay a distance equal to the length of the hook shank.
  2. Tie it in with very firm wraps of the cotton.
  3. Trim the butt of the wad of wool off with a pair of scissors taking care to trim it at an angle so that no ridges are formed in front of the red cotton binding.
  4. Varnish the red cotton binding.

D
  1. Tie your black fly tying thread in and use that to tie off the cotton.
  2. Trim the excess cotton off and build up an under-body of black thread that slops dow but stops short of the eye of the hook.

E
  1. Tie in a length of poly yarn just behind the eye of the hook. The poly yarn wing should be the same length as the body.
  2. Build up a neat thread head.
  3. Whip finish, trim the thread and varnish the head of the fly.