| 1) Place the gold bead on the hook and insert the hook in the vise. Attach the tying thread just behind the bead and wrap back to the bend. |  |
| 2) Clip a bundle of hair from the squirrel hide. Try to keep the guard hairs aligned by separating with one point of the scissors, a section of hair that is about a half inch long and about 1/8 inch wide. Stroke the hairs so they are straight, hold tightly, then cut as close to the hide as possible. Carefully compress the bundle and hold tightly near the tips. Remove the underfur and shorter guard hairs. (Tip: Save this for dubbing on nymphs.) |  |
| Grasp the bundle by the butt ends and gently remove any excessively long guard hairs at the tip end. |  |
| Measure the tail against the hook for length: it should be about the same length as the distance from the bend to just behind the gold bead. Grasp the bundle with your other hand, using your thumbnail to mark the appropriate length. |  |
| Secure to the top of the shank at the hook bend. Wrap the thread over the excess and continue forward to just behind the bead. |  |
| 3) Double over the end of the copper wire and pinch to close the loop. Slip this into the opening of the bead on the underside of the hook. |  |
| This procedure can be simplified by taking a loose turn of thread around the wire... pinch the hook shank on either side to keep the wire on bottom, then push the wire forward into the opening. This will help build up bulk on the underside of the shank within the opening to minimize the upward tilt effect that is common when tying beadhead patterns. |  |
| Wrap the thread back to the bend, securing the copper wire along the underside of the shank. Excess should be extending out beyond the bend to be wound later. |  |
| 4) Cut a section of floss about five inches long and secure to the top of shank. End with the thread a bit behind the bead. |  |
| Wrap the floss forward to the tying thread. To keep the floss from tangling or spreading, stroke the strand on each turn (sometimes every half turn) from the hook all the way to the end of the strand. |  |
| 5) Wind the copper wire ribbing. First, hold the tail up at an angle and take one tight turn all the way around the tail right at the bend. Then begin spiraling it forward tightly in somewhat close turns (slightly less wide than the hook eye). You should get about seven or eight turns by the time you get to the thread. Secure the wire at the tying thread with three turns, then clip with wire cutters. Push the clipped end down (preferably tucking it into the opening of the bead) and carefully cover it with a few more turns of thread to hide the sharp end. |  |
| 6) Create a dubbing loop with the thread. (click here for "How to Form a Dubbing Loop") Insert a dubbing whirl or other hooked instrument into the loop and hang it in a manner that the loop remains open and easily accessible. Here I've draped one side of the loop over the adjustment knob on the vise. The dubbing whirl is hanging in the loop below. *Before we continue, get a little cup of water to use as a wetting agent in step 8. |  |
| 7) The guard hair collar should be very full, about four times as much as the tail. Prepare the guard hairs as you did for the tail. I have skinny little fingers, so I have to gather three separate bundles. If you do this, simply lay each bundle carefully beside the others, lining up the barring. Then carefully gather all into one bundle and pick up by the butt ends. |  |
| Measure the collar hairs for length against the hook. The tips should extend to somewhere between the hook point and hook barb for the most part. You will have some that are shorter, and a few that extend a bit longer. This is fine, and helps give a buggy appearance rather that the manicured look of perfectly aligned, stacked hair tips. The goal here is to maintain the alignment of the natural barring as much as possible. |  |
| One of my favorite helper tools: an artist's clip. I use this to grasp the bundle of hair just short of the marked length. The clip holds them quite well, but the squirrel hairs are slippery. This is both bad and good. You need to be careful so you don't lose any, but you can use a dubbing needle to straighten out the hairs and spread them if need be. The bundle in the clip should be about as wide as the body length. |  |
| Carefully trim the excess butt ends. In the photo at right, about half the length of the butt ends shown will be on one side of the dubbing loop, with the tips on the other side. You want to leave just enough that when the loop is spun, the hairs get trapped in the twists without slipping out. |  |
| 8) Remove your dubbing loop from where it was hanging and hold it straight up off the fly. Insert the clip and the butt ends in the loop as close to the fly as possible. Pull the loop upward to tighten the loop, and spin it a couple times... this will force the loop closed when the clip is removed. Slide the loop off the clip onto the guard hairs. Make sure you're pulling the loop upward and taught (it helps to rest you elbow on the tabletop while holding the dubbing whirl/hook. C-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y remove the clip, leaving the guard hairs in the loop. |  |
| The guard hairs will do a little half turn because of the couple twists we put in the loop. This is fine, just keep that loop taught. You can adjust the hairs' position in the loop by gently pushing on the butt ends. Having about half a hook eye width worth of butt ends on that side of the loop is sufficient to lock them in. If in doubt, leave a little more... better to have some excess there than to push the hairs right out of the loop, in which case you'll need to get some more and start over. Don't try to pull on the tip ends... it just makes a mess. (My finger in the photo is just to hold the hairs back out of the half turn, to show the length and direction of push.) |  |
| Okay, the fun part (so I'm weird, but I think this is neat!). Keeping the loop taught, twist the dubbing whirl. As the loop twists, the hairs will spin with it forming a nifty chimneysweep-type brush. Continue twisting until this "brush" is full, with hairs all the way around from top to bottom and no discernible empty spaces. |  |
| Wind the brush tightly behind the gold bead. Allow a little space on the first wrap to place the next in front of it. It is helpful to wet the hairs slightly and fold them back, pinching at the thread... *use water for this for safety. Stroke the hairs back as you go so none are wrapped over pointing forward. When all the hairs have been wound on, take three or four more turns with the excess loop thread, working from directly behind the bead rearward. This helps lay the guard hairs back. Tie off the loop with the tying thread and clip the excess. |  |
| 9) Trim two pieces of fine rubber leg material as long as the entire hook (from front of hook eye to back of bend). Tie one in on each side. I tie the near one in first, taking one turn, then positioning the strand so it's directly on the side and equal front and back, then another tight turn to secure. The far side leg goes on the same way. Examine the fly from the top and from the front to check the symmetry and position of the legs. They should be perpendicular to the hook bend, parallel to the shank, and of equal length in the front and rear. If they are off, they could cause the fly to spin or "swim" tilted. |  |
| 10) Once the legs are positioned, take another tight turn through the middle of both, then proceed with a four-turn whip finish knot just behind the bead, under the "front" legs. Clip the thread and apply a drop of thin cement to the wraps on top and bottom. Thinner cements let you apply the drop, and capillary action pulls it into the wraps so you get a good seal, but you don't get a bunch of cement on the legs or the bead head. |  |
