Meat
and Potatoes
by Rick Bolda
This
all purpose dry fly catches fish! It is a
fly native to Wisconsin. Some call it Ed's
Indispensable. You can fish it upstream as
any dry fly, but it really works well when
you let it swing and twitch it back just under
the surface like an emerging caddis. It is
really a down-wing style Pass Lake with a
brown body and red tail.
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Hook:
#14 or 16 Tiemco 100 or similar dry fly hook
Thread: Black 8/0
Tail: Red hackle barbs
Body: Chocolate brown dry fly dubbing
Wing: White calf tail (or calf body
hair) down-wing style, (stacked or non-stacked
as you prefer)
Hackle: Brown dry fly hackle in front
of the wing
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1)
Pinch the barb down and place the hook in the
vise. Attach the tying thread and wrap back
to just above the barb location.
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2)
Tie in the tail as a straight bundle about the
length of the hook shank. Wrap under light tension
at first with increasing tension as you wrap
forward. While holding the hackle with your
left hand, lift upward and toward you as you
wrap to hold the hackle on the top of the hook.
Bring the thread back to prepare for dubbing.
.
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3)
Begin to dub a thin body. I prefer to start
dubbing slightly in front of the tail, dub back
to the tail and then forward again. This method
covers up initial loose fibers but you must
work to keep the body thin.
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4)
Gradually increase the body size to create a
taper. Do not dub too far forward. Leave enough
room for the wing and hackle.
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5)
Prepare a bundle of calf hair for the wing.
Cut a bunch of hair, holding it with your left
hand. While grasping the ends of the long hair
fibers with your left hand, pull out the short
hairs with the thumb and fingers of your right
hand. You may wish to stack the hair to even
the ends. When I tie with calf tail, I don't
bother stacking it. This results in a naturally
tapered wing. Here I used calf body hair, which
is straighter and easier to work, stack and
tie.
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6)
Tie in the dry fly hackle. I really like using
the Whiting 100's. They are of nice quality
and packaged by hook size. The length makes
them easy to use and you get your money's worth
in number of flies.
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7)
Wrap the hackle 3 - 5 turns. Create a neat and
secure tie-off.
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8)
Here is the trout's view of the fly. |
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9)
The completed Meat and Potatoes fly. |
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