Tom Thumb
The origins of this fly are obscure but it has always been around in BC and it still accounts for lots of fish in all circumstances.
Tom Thumb |
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| Hook: | any size wide gap or round bend dry fly hook up to a number 2 |
| Thread: | olive Uni-thread |
| Tail: | deer hair |
| Shellback: | deer hair |
| Wing: | deer hair |
| Wing: | deer hair |
| Head (optional): | olive dubbing |
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Note: This fly is tied in two stages with two clumps of deer hair.
Take a clump of deer hair of about a matchstick thickness and cut it to size for the first layer of the body and tail. Start wrapping the hair just behind the eye of the hook, with tight wraps. (All the time you must hold the deer hair as you wrap to keep it on top of the hook shank.) Then relax the wraps for the main body - soft wrap to the bend and then tight wrap again at the tail Return the thread to the eye with soft wraps. Cut out another clump of deer hair but make this nearly twice as long as the first clump. Once again tie in at the head, first with tight wraps, then soft wraps over the body, tight again at the tail. Keeping hold of the deer hair, return the thread to the eye of the hook. Pull the second batch of deer hair over the body as a shell back, and tie in just behind the eye, keeping hold of the hair by the tips. Tie in to form the shell back body, pull the tips of the hair up and back, wrap in front of the hair to make the wing. This fly is most effective if it resembles a scruffy mess of deer hair lashed to a hook. I like to wrap some dubbing behind the wing and at the head to give it a cleaner look. The old timers frown upon this practice. The origins of this fly are obscure but it has always been around in BC and it still accounts for lots of fish in all circumstances. |
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