Pinch the hook in the vise, point down. Attach the thread, and wrap a base layer from the eye of the hook to the bend. Cut and taper a sparse bunch of Steve Farrar’s flash blend, and tie it in just past the midsection of the bundle on top of the bend of the hook. Hint: You can taper this material by gently tugging at each end.
Once the material is secure, take the front half of this material and fold it back toward the tip of the tail (the other end of the SF blend), then tie it off. If you need more of a taper, use scissors to trim the tail to the desired shape.
Work the thread to just behind the eye of the hook (make sure to leave enough space to place the weed guard between the dumbbell eyes and the hook eye), and use figure-eight wraps to secure small lead eyes to the top of the hook shank. Wrap the thread back to the tail, and tie in the streamer brush.
Wrap the brush forward toward the lead eyes. As you make the wraps, pick out the tips of the brush with a bodkin. Continue wrapping the brush forward until you have just enough space on the shank to palmer a hackle collar (normally about four to five wraps).
Select a saddle hackle with tips that will extend to the end of the dubbing brush when palmered. Tie in the hackle on the shank, with the base of the feather quill just in front of where you tied off the streamer brush.
Wrap the feather around the shank, with the arch of the tips facing the rear of the hook. To finish the fly, tie in the mono weed guard, whip-finish the fly and apply a few drops of head cement. Finally, bar the tail with a permanent marker of your desired color.
