Partridge & Orange Spider
(The materials are listed in the order they are tied in. Instructions assume righthanded tier.)
Tying instructions:
- Prepare partridge hackle by stripping one side of the stem bare. (This is a fly from the north country, England, style where dressing a sparse fly is taken to the extreme) To prepare the feather hold it in front of you, butt towards yourself, tip facing away, looking down on to the concave side. Strip the fibers left of the stem, stopping a little short of the tip.
- Attach silk immediately behind the eye in three touching/overlapping turns. As the silk is fairly slippery, you may want to apply a very light coating of (hard) wax to the initial portion of the silk.
- Tie in the partridge feather by the butt. Lay the feather on top of the hookshank, tip facing over the eye and concave side up. Tie down with a pinch and loop, then run thread down the shank towards the bend. (Trim hackle stem one/third down the shank)
- Wind touching turns of silk to end of the straight shank, and back towards the eye again. The result should be that the whole body is a double layer of silk, except for the turn nearest to the bend, which ends up a single layer.
- When reaching the one/third behind the eye point, apply some _sticky_ wax to a small segment of the silk. Using the touch-dubbing method, 'dust' some mole onto the silk and wrap the silk towards the eye in touching turns forming a slender thorax. The result should be pretty much a haze suggesting volume, rather than _being_ volume.
- Clip hackle pliers on to the tip of the partridge feather. (I like to use the plastic EZ-pliers for tying soft hackles where the feathers used typically have fragile stems) Wrap two touching turns of (single-sided) hackle, winding away from the eye. End with the hackle pliers pulled straight up. This will give you two complete turns and an even distribution of fibers.
- Trap the hackletip with one wrap of silk and make the second one turn of silk through the hackle to the eye.
- Trim or snap (if you feel brave) the hackletip.
- Finish the fly off with a three turn whip finish, cut silk and apply a touch of head cement