This is undoubtedly my “go to” spider. Fish all over the world seem to find orange a trigger colour and along with the buggy shape, the movement of the soft hackle in the water this fly often produce a hit. There is also the added benefit that they are so easy to tie. All river fly fishers should have a selection of English Spiders in their fly boxes.

Materials

Process

A	Catch the thread in at the 95% position and wind it back to just the 85% position. At that point catch the wire ribbing in and continue winding the thread back to about 5% up from the bend of the hook tying the wire in along the top of the hook as you go. [member Link=”p=10018″ Title=”Understanding hooks”] Hold the wire up and take a few turns of the thread behind the wire. Wind the thread in touching turns back to the 85% position.

B	Wind the wire forward in touching turns to the 85% position creating 4 or 5 body segment along the fly. Take two tight turns of the wire directly in front of the 85% position and worry off the excess wire.

C	Select a hackle that has herl that around twice the gape of the hook. Tie in a hackle by the tip at the 85% position. [member Link=”p=3037″ Title=”Wet fly hackle”]

D	Lock the hackle in place with just one or two wraps of thread and using a sharp blade remove the excess hackle tip. Take two tuns of the hackle and lock it in place with a couple of firm wraps of thread.

E	Using a sharp blade remove the excess hackle butt.

F	Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread. Build up a neat head in the remaining space in front of the hackle taking care not to force the hackle backwards. Varnish the head taking care not to get any varnish in the eye of the hook or on the hackle. [member Link=”p=2838″ Title=”Neat heads on flies”]