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The gray duster was one of the first flies I tied. It was at a fly tying course at Illawarra Fly Fishers in Wollongong and this fly was selected because of its simplicity and of course the fact that it works. Over time my tie of a gray duster has been corrupted to be a sort of melding of the gray duster that I was first introduced to and an Adams irresistible. The ginger and badger combinations for the tail and hackle have been stolen from the irresistible and the body has been changed to seals fur dubbing. The tie below is of that corrupted variant. The link to the fist gray duster I was introduced to is as follows.

	Gray duster

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a tail of a mixture of badger and ginger hackle fibres about as long as the hook shank. Tails

B	Load your thread with a little dubbing and using the single strand dubbing technique dub on a cigar shaped body on the rear 2/3 of the hook shank. Dubbing techniques If your going to use the fly in still water you can make the body longer allowing for less hackle or if your going to use the fly in fast water you can shorten the body thus increasing the space for hackle.

C	Tie in two complementary hackles directly in front of the body with the dull under sides of the hackle facing forward. I have used the term 'complementary' rather than 'matching' for the two hackles as the key is similar thickness and shaped barbules rather than hackle shape. In the picture opposite, you can see, I have used two very different shaped hackle but for both the barbule thickness and barbule length are similar. Dry fly hackle Note that because the dull under side of the hackles are facing forward when they are tied in the hackle barbules will slope slightly forward 'dry fly style' as the hackle is wound forward.

D	Wind the hackle forward together in touching turns. Using a blade trip the excess hackle butts. Build up a small but neat thread head. Neat thread heads Whip finish the thread and varnish the head.

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