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I designed this fly to cast easily and to displace or push a lot of water when retrieved. The water displace by the head creates currents along the body which activate the body materials. This black over gold version (i.e. gold bomber colours) is particularly good over weed banks or in dirty water.

Materials

Process

A	Wind your thread in touching turns from behind the eye about half way down the hook shank and take the thread forward to about the 95% position. Understanding hooks Do a couple of half hitches to lock the thread into place and trim the thread. Multi hitches by hand Cover the whole of the thread with a thin coat of 5 minute epoxy. Working with epoxy Pierce a bean bag bead with the point of the hook and slide it along the shank so that the front of the bead is at the 90% position. Coat the outside of the bead with a thin coat of 5 minute epoxy.

B	When the epoxy has dried re tie the thread in behind the bead. It's important that you tie your sparkle flash in following the correct order. Tie the darkest of the 3 colours of sparkle flash that you have selected in on top of the hook shank. Managing synthetic fibres

C	Pull the front section of sparkle flash up with the back section effectively doubling it up

D	Lock the doubled up sparkle flash down on top of the hook shank just behind where it is tied in. I like to put a small clip on the hackle fibres just to tame them and keep them all together whilst I finish the fly.

E	Repeat steps B,C,D with the lightest of the three colours of sparkle flash you have selected but this time make sure that the sparkle flash is locked into place on the bottom of the hook shank.

F	Repeat steps B,C,D locking a bunch of sparkle flash on each side of the hook shank. When the 4 bunches of sparkle flash are all tied in place build up a collar of thread over the area they are tied in. Take the thread over the bead and take just 2 wraps directly behind the eye of the hook.

G	Coat the collar and the bead with 5 minute epoxy. In the same order you tied the bunches of sparkle flash in carefully pull each bunch forward and lock it into place directly behind the eye of the hook. Two firm wraps of thread is plenty. If you have used small clip on the hackle fibres just to tame them and keep them all together leave them in place for the time being.

H	Repeat the above process pulling the remain 3 bunches forward. Remember that the order is important. Pull the bottom bunch of sparkle flash forward before you pull the two side bunches of sparkle flash forward. If you have used small clip on the hackle fibres just to tame them and keep them all together leave them in place for the time being.

I	Mix up a further quantity of epoxy and apply about half of that as a further coat of epoxy over the bulbous head of the fly. Now in the reverse order pull the bunches of sparkle flash back and temporarily tie them off at the bend of the hook with a length of scrap wire. The two side bunches are pulled back first followed by the bottom bunch of sparkle flash and the top, darker bunch of sparkle flash is the last to be pulled back.

J	The step above can be done quite quickly and when you have finished it use the remaining mixed epoxy to apply a coat of epoxy to the front half of the head. Rotate the fly in your vice to ensure that the epoxy is evenly distributed round the front half of the head of the fly avoid the epoxy from  settling unevenly.

K	Just before the epoxy goes off press a dolls eye into place on each side of the head. As the epoxy is still sticky that will be enough to hold the dolls eyes in place. Mix up a final batch of epoxy and cover the head, back to just behind the dolls eyes, and including the dolls eyes, with a further coat of epoxy.

L	Rotate the fly in your vice to ensure that the epoxy is distributed evenly round the head of the fly and to avoid the epoxy from  settling unevenly. When the epoxy has gone off remove the small clips that were used to tame each bunch of sparkle flash as well as the wire that was used to temporarily lock the sparkle flash at the bend of the hook. Trim the tail of the fly to length. I like a tail that is between 1 and 1.5 the length of the hook.

I also tie a mackerel over white version that is great for clear water or evening fishing. The white crystal flash is luminous and can be charged by torch or other light source to fish in low light and that's a lot of fun.

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