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I was introduced to spider fishing a couple of years ago and had the opportunity in 2010 of tweaking my spider fishing skills when I fished the Eden river just outside Penrith where I was born. Fishing spiders or particularly swinging spiders has always worked well for me, I guess its in the blood.

This fly whilst being very different to a sparsely dressed north country spider has proven itself as a prolific fish catcher and has earned a place in my nymph fly box in the place of my brown and peacock spiders ... I can always clip the tag off.

As a river fly I have no hesitation in tying it on either in combination with a traditional spider, a bead head nymph or heaven forbid a bead head version of a north country spider and in lakes I have often sunk the fly in front of cruising fish with great success.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns from the 95% position to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a tag of Gleamy dubbing or suitable flashy substitute. Wind the thread forward 2/3 of the way along the shank of the hook toward the eye to where the body will finish.

B	Tie in several strands of peacock herl. Roping peacock herl Form the herl into a herl rope. Wind the herl rope along the rear 2/3 of the hook shank to form an acorn shaped body.

C	Trim the excess herl.

D	Tie a hackle in directly in front of the body Dry fly hackle Trim the butt end of the hackle. The hackle should be at around 45 degrees to the hook shank and on the vertical plane not the horizontal plane. That is, from the side it should look like this. Take the thread forward to the 95% position where the hackle will finish.

E	Wind the hackle forward in touching turns to the thread. Tie the hackle off at the thread and trim the excess hackle. Build up a neat head of thread. Whip finish and varnish the head.

F	Tie a hackle in directly in front of the body Dry fly hackle Trim the butt end of the hackle. The hackle should be at around 45 degrees to the hook shank and on the vertical plane not the horizontal plane. That is, from the side it should look like this. Take the thread forward to the 95% position where the hackle will finish.

G	Wind the hackle forward in touching turns to the thread. Tie the hackle off at the thread and trim the excess hackle. Build up a neat head of thread. Whip finish and varnish the head.

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