Nick Thomas comes up with another innovative fly pattern, this month he shares with us the Flipper.
Inspiration for a new fly design can come from many different places; this one came from a hook shape. I'd been browsing various websites looking for barbless hooks when I came across the Guru QM1 hook and was intrigued by its unique shape; 'QM' stands for question mark, which is pretty much what the hooks look like. The QM1 is a coarse fishing hook with a very short shank, a extra wide gape and an upturned eye. When turned upside down it looks like a cross between a circle hook and a bend-back hook and it struck me that its shape might lend itself to a new approach to tying point-up dry flies.
Now there is nothing new in dry flies being tied to land with the hook upside down to avoid having the point showing under the water surface, but I've never been very happy taking this approach with conventional dry fly hooks. With a standard straight shank dry fly hook the centre of gravity is below the shank and the buoyancy of a wing tied on the underside of the hook is always going to be fighting against this. In my experience the result is that flies tied this way don't know which way is up and can spend most of their time lying on their side; this may well catch fish, but it's not very satisfying when a fly you've spent time tying doesn't do what it's supposed to do. In any case tying in a wing on the underside of a standard hook shape can be a real pain (quite literally when you stab your finger on the hook point) and I've never been satisfied with the resulting wing shape and angle.
When I'm developing a new fly pattern I often make some preliminary sketches to work out what materials I'm going to use and to figure out the tying method. So I made few rough drawings of the Flipper using an image of the hook as a guide and it looked like it would be worth getting some of the hooks and tying up some prototypes to test. I ordered a pack each in size 14 and 16 and liked the way they looked; they were nicely finished with a good balance between wire thickness and hook size and gave an impression that they would hold a big fish.
The design idea was to build a slim body along the shank to half way round the bend opposite the eye leaving a gap just behind the eye to tie in the wing. The hook shank would then act as a keel to lower the centre of gravity like a bend-back hook and ensure that the fly would float correctly with the point up and hidden by the wing. Initial thoughts were to use either an organza body wrapped in touching turns or to rib over a dubbed body with flexifloss. For the wing I had Aero DryWing in mind, which would be looped around the thread at the eye and folded back on either side of the hook point to make two slightly separated wings, held in place with figure-eight wraps if necessary. I'd be aiming at quite a dense wing to mask the hook point from view, but with a bit of a gap in the middle either side of the point so the wing wouldn't interfere with hook-ups. I'd cut the wing at an angle behind the bend to give a wedge shaped wing and experiment with different wing lengths. Aero Dry Wing floats really well and would provide the necessary support for a hook with heavier wire than is usual in a dry fly.
Hook: Guru QM1 size 14/16
Thread: Moser Powersilk (I use grey and then tint the thread with a marker pen)
Body: Stripped organza ribbon or dubbing ribbed with flexifloss
Thorax: Hares Ice dub
Wing: Aero Dry Wing grey
- Vice the hook, catch on the thread and take down the shank and round the hook bend to opposite the eye in touching turns. Like lots of carp and coarse hooks these days QM1s have a non-stick coating of Teflon or something similar, so a smear of superglue along the thread wraps is useful to keep everything in place before starting to build the fly.
- For an organza body catch in a length of stripped and trimmed organza ribbon, wind the thread in touching turns to just short of the eye tying in the butt end of the organza. Wind the organza forward in touching turns to 2-3mm behind the eye, catch in and remove the excess.
- Alternatively for a dubbed body catch in a length of black or olive flexifloss, dub the body up to just behind the eye and rib with the flexifloss.
- Make a half-hitch or whip finish to secure the thread to stop it falling off and then rotate your vice head or remove the hook and replace in the vice point up.
- Cut two or three strands of Aero Dry Wing depending on how dense a wing you want and tie in at the middle of the strands just behind the eye on top of the shank with the trailing strands either side of the point. Fold back the other half of the wing either side of the point and tie down with a few tight thread wraps.
- Apply a small amount of dubbing to the thread and build a thorax of dubbing behind the wing to raise it up and hide the hook point. Make a couple of figure of eight wraps to slightly separate the wing into two halves either side of the hook point.
- Build a neat head over the wing root, whip finish, tint with permanent marker pen and varnish.
The Flipper fishes best on around three feet of tippet (I use 4-6lb degreased fluorocarbon so it sinks) attached to a floating furled leader. I give the wing a sparse coating with Gink which will keep the Flipper floating the right way up all day, or at least until something eats it. This being a cunning stealthy fly you shouldn't have to wait too long.....
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.