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The original thing was pink and white and was tied by Graham White of Darwin the early 80's. It got its name "pink thing" when one of his mates asked for "a lend of one of those pink things".  Whilst the "pink thing" was tied as a barra fly it has turned out to be a great dirty water fly for a range of tropical species.

Many colour combinations have evolved and my four favourites are pink and yellow for muddy water and as the business end of an articulated popper, blue specifically for articulated poppers and black for muddy water and as my go to fly for tannin stained water.

They can all be tied without eyes, with painted on or holographic eyes or with bead chain or dumbbell eyes. I generally tie them without eyes so that I can use them in an articulated popper rig. When I do fish them into structure that is generally on an intermediate or fast sink line which gets them down to where fish are holding.

My version is also a little different to the original in that I include a bucktail under-body and a beard of bucktail to increase the profile of the body of the fly.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in tight touching turns from the 95% position to directly above the eye of the hook. Return the thread to half way between above the point of the hook and the eye of the hook. Understanding hooks

B	Select a bunch of white buck tail and tie it in on top of the shank of the hook half way between above the point of the hook and the eye of the hook. The quantity of bucktail in the over-body should be 2/3 of the targeted body mass of the fly. The under-body should extend a distance equal to 2 times the length of a hook shank on a standard 34007 hook. If your using a shorter style hook take that into account.

C	Lift the butt ends of the under-wing up and trim off the excess an angle.

D	Tie three lengths of pearl Krystal flash on each side of the under-body. To complete the body of the fly select a second bunch of pink buck tail (about half the volume used in the under-body) and tie it in on top of the shank on top of the white bucktail and the same length. Lift the butt ends of the pink bucktail up and trim off the excess at an angle.

E	Select two matching grizzly hackle feathers and tie them in with the curve facing inward on the facing side of the fly but on the shoulder so that the feather sits like the front side of a tent and the same length of the body of the fly. Repeat that process on the other side of the fly creating a tent over the top of the fly.

F	Trim away the butt ends of the hackles. Select several quite small bunches of bucktail and tie them in around the hook shank with the tips extending uniformly around the hook shank and behind the bend of the hook creating a uniform beard.

G	Tie ina neck collar of FNF chenille. This collar will help the hackle to not stand up creating more cavitations around the fly. Select a hackle for the front of the fly. What you need is a hackle that is not to narrow at the tip and had a good population of 'marabou barbules" toward the butt end. The hackle I have chosen for this size #2/0 fly is 13cm long. The hackle is of course there partly for decoration but it is also there to direct the water around the fly as the fly is retrieved creating cavitations that get the tail working. If you can't achieve that with one hackle use two rather than making the hackle to light.

H	Tidy up the tie in of the under-body the over-body, the flash and the beard by building up a neat cone shape between the half way between above the point of the hook and the eye of the hook and the eye of the hook. Return the thread to half way between above the point of the hook and the eye of the hook. Tie the hackle in by the tip.

I	I don't trim off the tip of the hackle and prefer to turn it back on itself and tie it off over the thread cone. Return the thread to half way between above the point of the hook and the eye of the hook.

J	Wind the hackle/s forward in touching turns to just behind the eye of the hook. Whilst holding the hackle in place wind the thread through the tied in hackle toward the eye of the hook. Just behind the eye of the hook tie the hackle off.

K	Pull the hackle tips back between your fingers and build up a neat head of thread.

L	Using a sharp blade trim away the excess hackle and thread. The final step is to apply a UV epoxy or head cement to the thread head. The finished size #2 fly is 9cm long.

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