Silver & olive yeti – Chatto’s variant

 

My standard Yeti variant is a very successful fly but every now and again you need something a bit mor flashy. This fly fills that gap in my fly box. In smaller sizes I prefer my Bag Fly or my Tom Jones.

Materials

Hook Thread Weight Under tail Over tail Body Rib Wing Eyes Beard
Tiemco 3769 #8 or #10 Black Lead wire as required Yellow hackle barbules Black squirrel tail hair Flat silver tinsel Medium red wire Zonker strip Diamonds of flat silver tinsel Red hackle fibres

Process

A
  1. Wind the thread from the 95% position to the bend of the hook in touching turns.
  2. Tie in a hackle tail equal in length to the hook shank.
  3. Tie in a length of copper wire at the bend of the hook.
  4. Tie in some lead wire on the front half of the hook. I have tied in 10 wraps of .015 on this size #8 fly.

B
  1. Tie in a substantial over-tail of possum tail hair and gut the butt end square with the back of the lead wire.
  2. The finished tail should be around as long as the shank of the hook.
  3. If there are any obvious ridges along the body of the fly fill those with thread or a tiny bit of dubbing.
  4. Tie in a length of flat silver tinsel.
  5. Take the thread forward to the 85% position.

C
  1. Wind the flat tinsel forward in tight overlapping turns.
  2. Tie the flat tinsel off at the 85% position and trim the excess flat tinsel.

D
  1. Tie a length of Zonker strip at the 90% position equal to the length of the hook shank at the 80% position.

E
  1. Lift the zonker strip up and apply a little head cement to the top of the body or the bottom of the zonker strip.

F
  1. Leave the thread at the front and pick up the copper wire with your right hand.
  2. Whilst retaining pressure on the copper wire with your left hand separate the Zonker strip so that you can wind the copper wire around the hook shank without tying down any of the fur fibres.
  3. Continue this process as you wrap the copper wire along the fly to the 85% position creating 4 or 5 segments and locking the Zonker strip neatly along the top of the hook shank.
  4. Take an extra wrap of copper wire around the hook shank just in front of where the Zonker strip is tied in and whilst holding the shank of the hook steady with your left hand pull the copper wire toward you with your right hand breaking the excess copper wire off.

G
  1. Invert the fly and tie in just a few red hackle fibers at the 85% position with the tips partially obscuring the point of the hook.

H
  1. Bring the fly back up the right way and tie in a diamond shaped holographic eye on each side of the fly.
  2. Build up a neat head of thread, whip finish, trim the thread and varnish the head of the fly.



Last Updated: September 21, 2011
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Categories: Flies, Streamers & pulling flies
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