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Bead Head thread spider type flies are amongst the best flies for fishing fast rivers and streams. They are suggestive little flies and the combination of buggy shape and the movement of the soft hackle often produce a hit. There is also the added benefit that they are so easy to tie.

Finding good soft hackles for spiders can be a problem but if your diligent you can accumulate a supply. Natural and died partridge feathers, as used in the recipe below, are about the best but particularly small ones are not always available. Small church window feather, swamp hen feathers, CDC and other bird feathers work well and it's always worth saving small hackle scraps that have been cut off or left over when you tie other flies.

Materials

Process

A	Most beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other. Slide a tungsten bead over the point of the hook small opening first and position it behind the eye of the hook. Working with beads Wind the thread in touching turns about half way down the hook shank and tie in some lead wire to add weight to the fly. Understanding hooks Continue winding the thread to part way round the bend of the hook filling in any ridges between the lead and the hook shank as you go.

B	Wind the thread forward in touching turns to behind the bead head.

C	Tie in a soft hackle by either the tip or the butt depending on the hackle selected. Wet fly hackles

D	Take just one or two full turns of the hackle directly behind the bead head and secure it in place with a few wraps of thread. Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread. 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 it will tarnish quite quickly.

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