Four Hackle Mayfly
- Tie in thread just behind the eye of the hook, wrap the thread back to the bend. Dub a small amount of muskrat fur onto the thread to build a small body of dubbing from the bend to about 2/3 up the shank towards the eye.
- Take a long hackle from a grizzly cock and stroke the hackles backwards about one inch down from the tip. On the dull or under side of the hackles, you stroke backward, then apply a drop or two of flexible cement such as “Fleximent.” With index finger and thumb smooth out the cement and set hackle aside to dry. If you are going to tie several of these flies, do this step first so they will be dry when you need to use them. Tie the hackle in where you stopped the dubbing, about 1/3 of the hook shank back from the eye of the hook. The hackle should be tied in flat with the dull side of the hackle on top. From the side the hackle should have a curve upwards. The tip should be out over the bend, remembering not to let it extend too far passed the bend. Now, very carefully take a pair of very fine tipped scissors and clip out a vee (V) in the hackle tip so that you have two barbs on each side of the end of the body for the setae or tails.
- Now take two hackles from the large end of a rooster neck with round tips (or a hen hackle). Stroke the barbs so that the tip is undisturbed. Measure the tip length so it is just a little longer than the entire length of the 1x short hook. With your scissors, clip off the excess barbs as close to the stem as you can. Next, take the two hackle tips and place them back to back (shiny sides together) so they curve away from each other. Lay the hackle tips on edge on top of the shank with the tips pointing over the eye of the hook. Tie down with about four turns of thread, now take the tips and stand them straight up and wrap about ten turns of thread up tight to the standing hackle tips. DO NOT try to figure eight these wings. In the next step I’ll show you an easier way to divide the wings.
- Get one of your best grizzly dry fly hackles, stroke the webby part of the hackle so they stand out from the stem, take your scissors and clip the webby barbs close to the stem. Take the stem and lay it on top of the shank with the stem laying in between the wings (hackle tips) with the hackle tip extending out past the bend of the hook. Tie down the hackle with three turns of thread behind the wings, bring the thread in front of the wings and while you’re holding the hackle stem on the side of hook shank closest you, tie the stem down in front of the wings with three more turns. Clip off extra stem close to last thread wrap. Bring the thread back behind the wings and dub about one inch of thread with muskrat dubbing, make a couple of turns of dubbing behind the wings and a couple of turns of dubbing in front of the wings. If there is any dubbing on the thread after this, you can pull it off and save it. Now take the hackle and make three turns in back of the wings, bring it in front of the wings and make three more turns. Tie off the hackle and clip off the excess. Form a head with a few turns of thread, then whip finish or half-hitch. Add a drop of head cement to complete the fly.
Note: If you want to tie a simpler fly you can forget the dubbing on the abdomen and thorax. I don’t think the trout will know the difference. You can use different colors of flies and different sizes to represent different Mayflies. When I fished this fly the trout that were rising would not hesitate to take it.