Tying the Red Metallic Tungsten Bead Fly for Stocked Rainbows

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This is another variation of the Skrek. It is tied the same as my Fiona fly except that it incorporates a red metallic tungsten bead head and pearl rather than blue tinsel in the tail. It is not a fly I tie on often but it is very popular in Victoria when targeting stocked rainbows.

Materials

Hook Thread Bead Tail Rib Body Body hackle Front hackle
Medium shank such as Tiemco 3769 Black For #8 hook a 3.2 mm silver tungsten bead works well Black marabou Medium silver wire Red holographic tinsel Black hen hackle Crow breast feather

Process

A
  1. Thread your bead onto the hook small opening first.
  2. Wind the thread from behind the bead to the bend of the hook in close turns.

    3. See [[Understanding hooks]]

  3. Tie in a woolly bugger type tail. I don’t add the tinsel as in the traditional woolly bugger type tail but you can if you think your fly needs the extra bit of flash. This is one of those flies where the under-body must be uniform so if when you tied the marabou tail in you were left with ridges along the body use a bit of dubbing to fill those gaps in.

    4. See [[Woolly bugger type tails]]

  4. Tie in a length of silver wire .
  5. Tie in a length of holographic tinsel. I have all my tinsels on bobbins and permanently loaded onto a bobbin holder. By doing this I minimize wastage and make the winding process easier.
  6. Wind your thread to behind the bead

B
  1. Wind your tinsel forward in slightly overlapping turns.
  2. Tie the tinsel off behind the bead and trim the excess.
  3. Tie in a hackle with barbules about as long as the gape of the hook. I generally find I can poke the but of the hackle into the back opening of the bead.

    4. See [[Woolly bugger hackles]]

C
  1. Wind the hackle back along the body of the fly creating 5 or 6 segments.
  2. Whilst holding the hackle in place with you left hand pick up the wire with your right hand and wind it forward locking the body hackle in place and forming 5 or 6 segments along the body.

    3. See [[Body segments on flies]]

  3. Tie the wire off behind the bead and worry off the excess wire.
  4. Trim the excess hackle with a blade rather than scissors.
  5. Tie your front hackle in by the tip.

D
  1. Take just 1 or 2 turns of the front hackle depending on the thickness of the barbules.
  2. Wind your thread through the hackle tying it into place.
  3. Trim the butt end of the hackle with a blade.

E
  1. Stroke the hackles back and lock them in place with several wraps of thread creating a narrow collar behind the bead.
  2. Whip finish behind the bead. I generally just do one or two quad hitches by hand.

    3. See [[Multiple hitches done by hand]]

  3. trim the thread and varnish the collar and the bead. If you don’t varnish the bead they tarnish quickly.

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