Lance Egan is a well-known competition angler and fly tier from Utah. His well-known patterns include the Frenchie, the Rainbow Warrior, and the Red Dart featured here. You might notice that all of these patterns are designed to sink quickly into a trout’s strike zone, which Lance feels is an important feature. Since he is a three-time national fly-fishing champion and a bronze medalist at the world championships, we oughta take his word for it.
In this week’s, Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions shows you how to tie a durable Red Dart with the proper weight and proportions. As with any herl-body fly, you need to reinforce the material with ribbing to keep the herl from unraveling after a few fish. And the way Tim prepares the hackle to make the collar is ingenious.
Hook: Barbless jig hook (here a Lighting Strike JF2), size 14.
Bead: Gold slotted tungsten bead, 7/64″.
Weight: Lead-free round wire, .020.
Adhesive #1: Superglue or Fly Tyer’s Z-Ment.
Thread: Red, 8/0 or 70-denier.
Tails: Red saddle-hackle fibers.
Rib: Pearl Sulky Holoshimmer Metallic Thread.
Body: Peacock herl.
Collar 1: Brown saddle hackle.
Collar 2: Pink Ice dub.
Adhesive #2: Head cement or Sally Hansen Hard-As-Nails.
Tools: Plunger-style hackle pliers, bodkin.
How is the way he prepares his hackle collar “genius”? Folks have been doing that for decades. Please explain.
The way he leaves a tie-in anchor and then the way he pulls the feather through his fingers (rather than vice versa). I didn’t say he invented these steps, but I know that many tiers aren’t familiar with them (as I wasn’t before I saw Tim do it). These videos are meant as teaching tools, and Tim is very good at it. Not everyone is an expert tier.
Hi,
Could you give me the reason for using hot spots and if using holographic, for example mylar tinsel on fly model on the back of the body, or other flash materials. Does increase the number of strikes? On the other hand, does this work on all species of trout or is it only suitable for rainbow trout? Could you provide me some published article about this subject?
Thank you
My number 1 ‘confidence’ fly!
Does this pattern work in MT