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Whilst this a  New Zealand design by Eric Craig probably in the early 70's this fly has been adopted by many Australian fly fishers as their favourite night time fly when the mudeye are hatching. Whilst the original version uses Pukeko feathers most in Australia use swamp hen breast feathers . . .obviously road kill as the bird is protected. The original also has a single jungle cock feather tied on top just behind the eye of the hook but I tend to leave that out. I like legs on flies so I have added just a few swamp hen barbules tied in beard style as legs and to partially camouflage the point of the hook. Works best when fished on a floating line with un-greased leader. Slower retrieves such as 'figure of eight' generally work best but in any case vary the retrieve speed and action until you find the one that works for that evening.

Materials

Process

A	Select a bunch of Marabou about as thick as a match stick and tie the bunch in along the top of the hook shank with the tips forming a tag about as long as the gape of the hook. Tag tails Tie in a length of silver holographic tinsel along the top of the hook shank. I keep all of my tinsels on bobbin holders which I find mitigates wastage. If your tinsel is on a bobbin holder leave the bobbin hanging over the back of the vice until the tinsel is needed. Using a bobbin holder also makes winding the tinsel forward more manageable.

B	Bare the first 5 mm of a length of chenille and tie the bare core of the chenille in along the top of the hook shank with the chenille wadding tight up against the bend of the hook.

C	Wind the chenille forward to the 95% position in touching turns forming a uniform body. Tie the chenille off with a couple of firm turns of thread. Where the chenille sits at the 95% position I generally trim the top of the chenille so there is no ridge between the chenille and the hook shank. This will make it much easier to tie in the wing feathers.

D	Wind the holographic tinsel forward forming 4 or 5 body segments. Body segments on flies Tie the tinsel off with a couple of firm turns of thread. Tie just a few hackle fibres in under the fly as legs and to camouflage the business end of the hook.

E	Tie a wing consisting of 2 or 3 blue swamp hen feathers with the tips extending around half way along and over the tail. Tie in a jungle cock feather or a couple of yellow hackle barbules in the middle of the wing. This step is optional but I do like to add the yellow hackle barbules. Build up a neat head of thread. Neat heads on flies Whip finish and varnish the head.

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