Chinook Spey
The combination of black and orange with gold flash is very effective for chinook salmon. This fly was created after I had a season full of good luck with a similarly colored hairwing wet fly with a long flashabout tail (Fatal Attraction). I wanted to tie a Syd Glasso style spey fly making use of that effective combination of colors.
Tying instructions:
- Attach the thread behind the hook eye and tie in a length of mylar tinsel silver side down (so the gold will be visible when wrapped).
- Wind the tinsel toward the bend of the hook and back to the thread, forming an smooth underbody of gold tinsel.
- Double a couple strands of gold flashabou around your thread and wrap your thread back toward the bend, binding the flashabou to the top of the hook shank to form the veil. Stop around mid shank.
- Tie in your hackle by the tip on the far underside of the hook shank.
- Tie in your ribbing tinsel immediately in front of the hackle.
- Dub the front half of the body with SLF, leaving room for a wing and collar.
- Wind the ribbing tinsel forward to the eye (three turns are enough).
- Wrap the hackle foward, following the tinsel, to the hook eye. Fold the hackle as you wrap, trying to keep the barbs slanting rearward.
- Tie in a Gadwall flank feather by the tip and make a couple wraps, folding as you wrap to form a collar.
- Select a pair of matched chinese neck hackles. At this point, I measure them to length and strip about a sixteenth of an inch of stem. I crush the stem flat with pliers and put a little "crimp" in it so the stem kinks downward, which will help keep the wing flush with the body.
- Tie in the wing and whip finish you thread.