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If your a competition fly fisher, I would go as far as saying, this is one of those flies that you should have in your fly box. It can tied in any combination of colors but for me the three shown below are from my point of view the best options. I have called this a variant as my version includes a red hackle beard which I like because it gives the allusion of a bleeding insect or bait fish and of course it partially camouflages the business end of the hook.

Tied with a woolly bugger tail that allows movement within the fly, a plain, painted or anodised tungsten bead for the head that encourages up and down movement and of course plenty of fleeting colour as it is stripped through the water this fly is very much a top class pulling fly... and very effective in that role.

Materials

Process

A	Most beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other. Slide a bead over the point of the hook small opening first and position it behind the eye of the hook. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in about half of the marabou tail making it about 1.5 times the length of the hook.

B	Tie in a two strands of pearl Krystal flash on each side of the tail.

C	Tie in the balance of the marabou tail. By tying the tail in using these 3 steps you generally finish up with a better marabou tail with the flash integrated with the tail rather than sitting on the outside of the tail.

D	Tie in a length of crystal or estaz chenille at the bend of the hook. I like to tie it along the top of the shank of the hook from the 90% position right back to the bend of the hook so as to ensure that there are no ridges in the under-body.

E	Wind the crystal or estaz chenille forward to the 90% position in tight touching turns. As you do that take care at each turn to stroke the crystal or estaz chenille fibres backward out of the way so that as you wind the next turn of the crystal or estaz chenille forward you don't tie down any of the fibres from the previous turn. Lock the crystal or estaz in position at the 90% position witha couple of tight wraps of thread.

F	Turn the fly over in the vice. Select 6 to 10 red hackle fibres and tie them in at the 95% position with the tips extending so as to partially hide the bend and point of the hook. Trim away the excess butt ends with a sharp pair of scissors.

G	Pick up the crystal or estaz and take one final turn directly behind the eye of the hook so as to hide where the red hackle fibre beard is tied in. Tie the crystal or estaz off behind the bead and trim the excess crystal or estaz. Whip finish behind the bead head, trim the thread and varnish the thread behind the bead and the bead itself. If you don't varnish the bead, particularly if it's a brass unpainted bead, it will tarnish quite quickly.

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