{{start}}

As long as there is a flow in a river to work a fly then English Spiders are an option. Particularly if you want to target educated fish in clear slower water. Traditional (i.e. North country spiders) land softly and are suggestive little flies. The combination of the buggy shape, the movement of the soft hackle in the water often produce a hit. There is also the added benefit that they are so easy to tie. All river fly fishers should have a selection of English Spiders in their fly boxes.

Materials

Process

A	Understanding hooks Catch the thread in at the 95% position and wind it back to just the 85% position. At that point catch the wire ribbing in and wind the thread back to about 5% up from the bend of the hook tying in the ribbing wire along the top of the hook shank as you go. Hold the wire up and take a few turns of the thread behind the wire. Wind the thread in touching turns back to the 85% position.

B	Wind the wire forward to the 85% position forming 5 or 6 body segments on the fly . Take two tight turns of the wire directly in front of the 85% position and worry off the excess wire.

C	Select a hackle that has herl that around twice as long as the gape of the hook. Tie in a hackle by the tip at the 85% position. Wet fly hackle

D	Using a sharp blade or sharp scissor points remove the excess hackle tip. Take 1 or 2 tuns of the hackle and lock it in place with a couple of firm wraps of thread. Don't over hackle the fly.

E	Using a sharp blade remove the excess hackle butt.

F	Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread. Build up a neat head in the remaining space in front of the hackle taking care not to force the hackle backwards. Whip finish and varnish the head taking care not to get any varnish in the eye of the hook or on the hackle. Neat heads on flies

{{end}}