Twlight Beauty

 

The Twilight Beauty trout fly is a popular dry fly and a good adult mayfly imitation. It as the names suggests works best in the evening and in particular on warm still evenings when mayflies are hatching. There are many versions of this popular and effective fly ranging from dark forms as in the recipe below to much lighter and grayer versions.

Materials

Hook Thread Wings Tail Body Ribbing (optional) Hackle
Size 10-14 Black Grey duck feather slips or tips Blue dun, chocolate or furnace hackle fibres Charcoal thread or dubbing Thin tinsel or thread Blue dun, chocolate or furnace

Process

 

A

  1. Starting at the 95% position wind the thread backward along the front half of the hook shank in touching turns and then return the thread back toward the eye of the hook to the 2/3 position.
  2. Select two matching feather slips or feather tips and tie them in with one on each side of the hook shank with the tips facing forward.


    3. or, alternative wings

  3. Once tied in stand them upright and secure them into that position. This can be done by holding the wings in the upright position and then taking one or two horizontal wraps of thread around the base of the wing and then using the thread to hold the wings upright by taking a few wraps of thread behind the wing position.

 

B
  1. Wrap the thread almost to the bend of the hook and then tie in a tail of 6 or 7 hackle fibres. The finished length of the tail should be between 3/4 and the full length of the hook shank.
  2. If your using ribbing material tie it in at the bend of the hook. I have tied in some black thread to use as ribbing.

 

C
  1. Either dub on a body or build up a body of fly tying thread. In either case the body should be slim.
  2. If your ribbing the body wind the ribbing material forward to form 4 or five segments. Trim the excess.

 

D
  1. Tie in the hackle directly behind the wing with the dull side facing forward. This will ensure that the hackle fibres face forward not backward as would be the case if the hackle were tied in shiny side forward.

 

E
  1. Wind the hackles equally behind and in front of the wing and tie off behind the eye of the hook and trim the tag end.
  2. Build up a neat head.
  3. Whip finish and varnish the head.

 



Last Updated: April 24, 2010
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Categories: Dry flies, Flies, My "trout" dry fly box
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